Automotive
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| Tesla's Ace: After a memorable March sales month, nothing like showing the Next Big Thing |
Models - Tesla Model S Goes (Almost) Ludicrous
The global EV market continues to grow at rapid pace, with the 58.000 units delivered in March representing a 37% growth YoY, with last month being the second best selling month ever, only behind the 86k of last December.
In the models ranking, the leader Nissan Leaf had its best month in a year, delivering 6.564 units, but that wasn't enough to win the Best Seller Of The Moth award, because the Tesla Model S made its usual March party trick and delivered 7.777 units, only slightly worse than the all-time record of 8.082 units set last December...
With this impressive performance, the Model S climbed one position to Second Place, displacing the BYD Tang, which slipped not one, but two positions, because the Mitsu Outlander PHEV did a year best by registering 4.532 units, just enough to displace the chinese SUV to Fourth and recover the Best Selling PHEV title.
Below these heavy weights, a lot has also happened, with the Renault Zoe climbing one position to #5, the Chevrolet Volt slowly coming back to its old form, rising one position to #7, while in #10 we have something of an unexpected arrival, with the six year old (An eternity in the EV World) BYD e6 reaching the bottom place in the Top 10, the last time that happened it was way back in 2012, when Tesla was getting ready to put the Model S on the streets, in fact BYD's veteran MPV/wagon is having its best production year ever, which says a lot on the current state of the Chinese EV market.
| Pl | WORLD | March | YTD | % | '15Pl |
| 1 | Nissan Leaf | 6.564 | 16.282 | 12 | 2 |
| 2 | Tesla Model S | 7.777 | 12.420 | 9 | 1 |
| 3 | Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV | 4.532 | 9.279 | 7 | 3 |
| 4 5 6 | BYD Tang Renault Zoe BAIC E-Series EV | 3.111 2.783 2.361 | 9.221 5.901 5.583 | 7 4 4 | 8 7 11 |
| 7 | Chevrolet Volt | 2.116 | 4.439 | 3 | 9 |
| 8 | JAC i EV | 1.802 | 4.410 | 3 | 16 |
| 9 | BMW i3 | 1.596 | 3.998 | 3 | 5 |
| 10 | BYD e6 | 2.016 | 3.807 | 3 | 22 |
| TOTAL | 57.998 | 132.343 |
Manufacturers - Tesla and BYD Charge
If the leader Nissan had its best result in a year, with 6.902 units, Tesla did even better, with a personal best of 9.636 units delivered, staying only behind the 10k all-time record achieved by BYD last December, speaking of the chinese automaker, they have stepped up deliveries to over 7.000 units, putting pressure on the leader Nissan, only 330 units ahead.
Tesla profited from last month the excellent performance to surpass Mitsubishi and reach the last place of the podium, while the race for the Fifth position continues rather interesting, with Volkswagen trying to reach the #5 BMW, but having to look out with the #7 Renault, dangerously close to it.
| Pl | WORLD | March | YTD | % | '15Pl |
| 1 | Nissan | 6.902 | 17.113 | 13 | 4 |
| 2 | BYD | 7.215 | 16.783 | 13 | 1 |
| 3 | Tesla | 9.636 | 14.820 | 11 | 2 |
| 4 | Mitsubishi | 4.883 | 10.607 | 8 | 3 |
| 5 6 7 | BMW Volkswagen Renault | 3.405 3.396 3.376 | 8.524 7.947 7.654 | 6 6 6 | 6 5 8 |
| 8 | BAIC | 2.426 | 5.848 | 4 | 12 |
| 9 | Chevrolet | 2.373 | 5.062 | 4 | 11 |
| 10 | Ford | 1.984 | 4.536 | 3 | 10 |
Segment Leaders
A / City Car - JMC E100 (2.409 units), chinese brands kingdom, remaining positions in the podium also by chinese models: Zotye Cloud EV and Chery eQ.
B / Subcompact - Renault Zoe (5.901 units), with BAIC E-Series EV and BMW i3 as close competitors;
C / Compact - Nissan Leaf (16.282 units), the Volt is too far away to pose a threat;
D / Midsize - Ford Fusion Energi (2.772), leader to be dethroned by the VW Passat GTE (1.5k) ?
E+F / Fullsize - Tesla Model S (12.420 units), hands down leader. Second Best: Mercedes S500e, 219 units...
Sports car / Convertible - BMW i8 (724 units), without real competition;
SUV - Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV (9.279 units), a close race with the BYD Tang;
MPV / Minivan - BYD e6 (3.807 units), shaming the Ford C-Max Energy (1.5k);
LCV / Van - Renault Kangoo ZE (954 units), really close race with the Nissan e-NV200 / Evalia;
Pick up - Mitsubishi Minicab Miev Truck (36 units), why does no one picks up on this?
