World Top 10 March 2014

Automotive

"Keeping people happy until Gen2 arrives" - Seems to be Volt primary goal now

Models - The Frog Turtle and the Rabbit

After the extraordinary performance of the media-friendly Tesla Model S in March, smashing its previous sales record (2.804 units last December) by a thousand units (3.804 cars last month!), it's easy to forget that the hard-working-but-old-news Nissan Leaf still represents 1 out of 4 plug-in cars sold in the world, and last month it established yet again a new personal best sales month, with 5.538 units sold, nearing Nissan's unofficial goal of 6.000 units/month for its electric car, another good sign for the japanese carmaker is that all three factories that make the Leaf are running at decent pace, if this trend continues, then Nissan can focus on the next unofficial goal: 8.000 units/month for 2015, divided by four factories (Japan, China, USA and the UK). The 100.000 units/year objective won't be that far off by then...

The 23.429 plug-ins sold last month represent a 37% jump regarding last year and with YTD sales mounting to 55.857, sales are going in the right direction for some 250.000-plus sales at the end of the year.

Looking further down the ranking, the Outlander is now Third surpassed by the aforementioned Model S, while behind it the Chevy Volt and Prius Plug-In are fighting sale-by-sale for #4, with the japanese winning in March by 9 units (1.739 vs 1730), but the american is still in the lead in the YTD chart by 41 units. 

Behind these, we see another position race looming, with the #6 BYD Qin being chased by the #7 Ford Fusion Energi and #8 BMW i3, with this last one starting to be sold in the US in April, BYD has to increase sales if it wants to keep its position.

Finally, the fight for #9 is also interesting, with the Ford C-Max, Volvo V60 Plug-In and the #11 VW e-Up! separated by just 60 units in the YTD ranking.

Pl	WORLD	March	YTD	%	'13Pl
1	Nissan Leaf	5.538	13.574	24	1
2	Tesla Model S	3.804	6.907	13	3
3	Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV	2.091	5.823	10	5
4	Chevrolet Volt (1)	1.730	4.160	7	2
5	Toyota Prius Plug-In	1.739	4.119	7	3
6	BYD Qin	877	2.384	4	40
7	Ford Fusion Energi	909	2.261	4	9
8	BMW i3	903	1.974	4	20
9	Ford C-Max Energi	625	1.678	3	8
10	Volvo V60 Plug-In	657	1.670	3	7
	TOTAL	23.429	55.857

Manufacturers - Mitsubishi holds on to #2 

In the Manufacturers ranking, Mitsubishi benefits from the extended range to resist to Tesla's good month and secure the YTD #2.

Further down the ranking, this time it was Chevrolet to win the #4 place at the expense of Ford, at #7 BYD continues to improve with yet another record month (Now at 1.132 units/month), just like BMW (903 units), while Volvo secures its #10 position from Volkswagen (#11 with 671 units in March and 1.618 YTD).

Pl	WORLD	March	YTD	%	'13Pl
1	Nissan	5.538	13.574	24	1
2	Mitsubishi	2.644	7.155	13	2
3	Tesla	3.804	6.907	12	3
4	Chevrolet	1.838	4.433	8	5
5	Ford	1.730	4.394	8	4
6	Toyota	1.812	4.356	8	6
7	BYD	1.132	3.003	5	11
8	Renault	1.137	2.417	4	6
9	BMW	903	1.974	4	13
10	Volvo	666	1.689	3	8

(1) - Includes Holden Volt, Opel and Vauxhall Ampera;



Questions for April

1 - Which model will be #4? And #6? And #9?

2 - Who will improve their sales records?

3 - Can Tesla reach #3?

4 - Which manufacturer will be #4?

5 - Can the #10 Volvo resist to the upcoming VW assault?

Automotive