World Top 10 March 2015 (Updated)

Automotive

BYD Qin in a rare picture outside Showrooms

Models - Springtime Record

A record 42.135 plug-ins were sold last month, which represents a 72% increase regarding the same month last year, so we are on the right track for 400k-plus units this year, with the First Millionth plug-in car to be registered by next September. 

The top position went for the Leaf, with 6.484 units, its best performance since last September.

In #2 we have the Tesla Model S, with a record 5.562 sales, followed in Third by the Mitsu Outlander PHEV, with 5.196 sales, its best result in 15 months, while in #4 we have the BYD Qin (2.476 units, new personal record), leaving the rest of the pack behind and now aiming for the Top 3.

Moving on, the YTD ranking shows one major change, with the Model S from Tesla displacing the Outlander PHEV from the Second Spot, expect the japanese model to fight back next month, this is a fierce race that has been going on since last year, so expect a lot of action coming from these two in the near future. 

A final reference to the bottom places in the table, the Chevrolet Volt family climbed to #8 and the Golf GTE is now #10 (Only 422 sales this month), but the really interesting thing is that behind it, there is a lot of pretenders to the last place in the ranking, as there are three cars in a 100 units-ish proximity of the german car: The #11 BAIC E-Series  EV (1.950 units, 1.431 in March), the #12 Zotye E20 (1.927 units, 1.151 last month) and the #13 Ford Fusion Energi (1.891 / 850), all are really close to Volkswagen's car and all of them are outperforming it, so i wouldn't be surprised if they all surpassed it next month. 

Pl	WORLD	Mar.	YTD	%	'14Pl
1	Nissan Leaf	6.484	13.437	15	1
2	Tesla Model S	5.626	10.030	11	3
3	Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV	5.196	9.849	11	2
4 5 6	BYD Qin BMW i3 Volkswagen e-Golf	2.476 2.012 1.299	6.319 5.277 3.661	7 6 4	7 6 21
7	Renault Zoe	1.349	3.053	3	9
8	Chevrolet Volt (1)	749	2.139	2	4
9	Toyota Prius Plug-In	719	2.081	2	5
10	Volkswagen Golf GTE	442	2.003	2	33
	TOTAL	42.135	89.599

Manufacturers -  Tesla Month

Tesla recovered and it is now at its usual place (Third), while BYD continues ahead of Volkswagen (Das Auto went down two positions), which now has BMW on its heels, looking to displace it from Fifth.

There is a close fight between Ford and Renault for #7, with the french manufacturer running ahead (for now), while the two last spots have been changing hands frequently, it's now time for the chinese Zotye to debut the Top 10, it is #9, relegating Chevrolet to #10 and ditching Toyota out of the Top 10, for the first since 2012!.  

Pl	WORLD	Mar.	YTD	%	'14Pl
1	Nissan	7.053	14.326	16	1
2	Mitsubishi	5.645	10.991	12	2
3	Tesla	5.626	10.030	11	3
4	BYD	3.039	7.418	8	7
5 6 7	Volkswagen BMW Renault	2.021 2.473 1.950	6.424 6.417 4.326	7 7 5	11 9 8
8	Ford	1.757	3.991	4	5
9	Zotye	2.353	3.456	4	13
10	Chevrolet	905	2.513	3	6

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

Automotive