Europe June 2014 (2nd Update)

Always nice to be on the riverside...

Four in Four Edition

With 8.496 units sold in June, the European EV market grew 90% regarding the same month last year, continuing the solid growth that has been experiencing throughout the year.

Looking at the models ranking, the Outlander PHEV was again the Best Seller of the month, with 1.833 units, distancing itself from the #2 Nissan Leaf (1.131 units sold).

For the first time this year, four cars sold in the thousands, with the aforementioned Outlander PHEV and Nissan Leaf being two of them, but also the Tesla Model S (1.135 units) and the Renault Zoe (1.016) did it, a special mention for the french hatch performance, since it's only the third time it reaches this kind of sales, and it had been twelve months since the last time it did (1.358 units in June '13), this brilliant performance allowed it to jump two positions in the YTD ranking to #5.

Final mention for two newcomers, the VW e-Golf is slowly climbing its way into the Top 10 and the BMW i8  sports car already appears at the bottom of this new Top 25 (5 more than before) ranking, with 60 registrations.

Pl	Europe	June	2014	%	'13Pl
1	Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV	1.833	9.038	20	3
2	Nissan Leaf	1.131	7.109	16	1
3	Tesla Model S	1.135	5.330	12	7
4	BMW i3	731	4.762	11	12
5	Renault Zoe	1.016	3.669	8	2
6	Volkswagen e-Up!	498	3.487	8	11
7	Volvo V60 Plug-In	346	3.274	7	4
8	Renault Kangoo ZE	544	2.028	4	5
9	Smart Fortwo ED	222	1.126	3	9
10	Renault Twizy	320	1.066	2	10
11	Bolloré Blue Car	82	531	1	16
12	Citröen C-Zero	101	457	1	15
13	Toyota Prius Plug-In	59	456	1	12
14 15 15 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25	Mitsubishi I-Miev Volkswagen e-Golf Opel Ampera Peugeot iOn Porsche Panamera Plug-In Goupil G3 Peugeot Partner EV Citröen Berlingo EV Nissan e-NV200 Ford Focus Electric Renault Fluence ZE BMW i8	57 166 29 76 13 28 30 24 58 9 12 28	372 343 343 305 245 198 174 125 110 91 61 60	1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0	14 N/A 8 18 21     17 22 N/A N/A 24 19 N/A
	TOTAL	8.496	44.845

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EV Business Case - Shopping for an EV - 1st Chapter

Introduction

Ever wondered on how different would be shopping for an electric car instead of a regular ICE one?

I thought it would be interesting to do a bit of mystery shopping and compare it with the buying experience of a regular car.

The first thing to do was selecting the models, i've chosen plug-ins that were commonly sold here in Portugal (Nissan Leaf, BMW i3, Renault Zoe, Smart Fortwo ED), along with the Opel Ampera, just because it's one of those cars i would actually see myself buying it.

Scheduling a Test Drive

Speaking of Ampera, after checking the manufacturer websites to schedule a test drive, i had the first surprise of this enterprise in the opel.pt website: There was just ONE dealer selling the Ampera in Portugal, it was in Oporto, 275 kms away.

So, unless you live nearby, you have to REALLY want a 0 kms Ampera to buy it in Portugal. No wonder  this year only two were registered...So the Ampera is out of the case study.

The other four test drive scheduling also had their peculiarities:

- The nearest Nissan dealership didn't had a Leaf available for test drive, so it had to be scheduled on one in downtown Lisbon;

- BMW asked a whole bunch of information regarding the customer (In this case, me), including job profiling;

- Renault back-office assistant advised me to visit the dealership and test-drive other models besides the Zoe, like the Captur or Clio;

- The Smart assistant informed me that at that moment they hadn't any Fortwo ED available for test drive and asked me to wait a few more weeks in order to perform the test drive. (I waited three weeks).

So, after this first step, Opel is out, Smart is losing points, Renault is losing focus, BMW a bit intimidating and Nissan is ok. 

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South Korea Full Year 2013

This is the most common electric car in South Korea, the Kia Ray EV

New Addition Edition 

Thanks to the korean company AutoDataBowl, we welcome a new EV Market here on EV Sales, South Korea.

This was a market that started recently (2012), but has been registering interesting numbers, with strong support from local authorities (1) and manufacturers.

In 2012 Kia launched the Ray EV for government agencies use and in that same year Renault-Samsung made a pilot launch of the Samsung SM3 ZE, known in other latitudes as Renault Fluence ZE, resulting in 548 electric cars registrations by the end of that year, divided in 531 Kias and 17 Samsungs.

The following year saw the continuation of the Kia Ray EV program, this time including car-sharing service companies, adding another 277 units to the tally, while the Samsung SM3 ZE and Chevrolet Spark EV started their retail career, with the Samsung sedan earning the Best Seller title at the end of the year.

Pl	Model	2013
1	Samsung SM3 ZE	398
2	Ria Ray EV	277
3	Chevrolet Spark EV	40
	TOTAL	715

(1) - There's a tax break for Electric Vehicles since 2012 and on top of that, the central and local governments grant other subsidies for EV's. Until the end of 2014, the central government will also subsidize the purchase of domestic chargers.

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Help Needed

Dear readers, I am calling for your help regarding 5 markets that either the data source have been dropped off or remain incomplete in spite of all my efforts to build a regular and detailed database. Your help can be anonymous if you want and will be greatly appreciated.

China

Monthly data has been patchy, as only BYD numbers appear on a monthly basis on chooseauto.com.cn,  if anyone has access to regular detailed data for China, currently the fourth largest EV market in the world, please contact me.

Russia

I get the feeling there is a lot of interest regarding electric cars in Russia, as it is the 5th country with more views in EV Sales, if anybody has data regarding Russia, please contact me as this can be one of those countries where things can get interesting for plug-ins very fast.

India

There is some data regarding the Mahindra Reva E2O performance here, but it is not a regular source and it misses the rest of the electric market, now that the Indian market is seriously considering EV's, it would be great if we could start following this market.

South Korea

There isn't any kind of data regarding this market, which is a shame considering there are several models selling there (Samsung SM3 ZE, Chevrolet Spark EV, etc) and this is a market with great growth potential. If anyone has access to regular detailed data for South Korea, could you please contact me here.

Czech Republic

Monthly data by brand and model from the sda-cia.cz website is now only available to members of the Czech Car Importers Association. This means at this stage there won’t be any Czech Republic data on EVS anymore, if anyone has access to even a portion of this data, please contact me here.

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Europe November 2013

The next contender for #1 in EV Europe

Newcomers - Euro Edition

Another sales record, with 9.941 units sold, making this the fourth straight month of growth for the European EV market, with four models selling in the four digit area, three of them recent additions: Besides the eversolid Nissan Leaf (#4 with 1.024 units), the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV went through the roof (2.736 units) thanks to dutch sales, the Volvo V60 Plug-In (1.330 units), also registered record sales and in third we have the Model S from Tesla with 1.133 units registered, also a new personal best. 

Besides those three models, there were two new EV's rising in the ranking, with the BMW i3 (408 units sold) now #13 YTD  and the VW e-Up! (437 units) joining the ranking at #17.

With all this increased competition, the Renault Zoe (632 units) was just fifth, maybe a prediction of what might be a difficult 2014.

The Smart Fortwo ED had another record month (435 units) and now that production constraints are over, it looks that the tiny two seater is steadily increasing performance on a monthly basis.

As a result of these new additions to the market, there's plenty of changes on the enlarged (Now Top 20) YTD Chart, with the two most significant being the Outlander PHEV coming out of nowhere to #6 and the Model S climbing yet another position to #8.

Pl	Europe	Nov.	YTD	%	'12Pl
1	Nissan Leaf	1.024	9.833	19	4
2	Renault Zoe	632	8.138	16	21
3	Renault Kangoo ZE	438	5.386	11	3
4	Volvo V60 Plug-In	1.330	5.010	10	22
5	Toyota Prius Plug-In	509	3.648	7	5
6	Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV	2.736	3.096	6	N/A
7	Renault Twizy	167	2.841	6	1
8	Tesla Model S	1.133	2.641	5	N/A
9	Smart Fortwo ED	435	2.457	5	12
10	Opel Ampera	344	2.257	4	2
11	Chevrolet Volt	21	884	2	11
12	Mitsubishi I-Miev	56	815	2	8
13	BMW i3	408	788	2	N/A
14 15 16 17 18 19 20	Bolloré Blue Car Citröen C-Zero Goupil G3 Volkswagen e-Up! Peugeot iOn Renault Fluence ZE Mia Electric	50 56 30 437 68 20 25	611 551 486 454 429 337 250	1 1 1 1 1 1 0	9 6 14 N/A 7 10 13
	TOTAL	9.941	51.109

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France November 2013

Given the sales of electric LCV's in France, this Leafened Nissan e-NV200 should have a shot on success  

The Elephant Question Edition

A Big Salut to all you french readers out there, by far the largest audience of EV Sales, we start the France post looking at the total sales, with 1.122 units sold in November, the french EV market dropped 30% regarding October and went back to last year levels (1.165 units sold a year ago), with the EV share decreasing to 0,82% as a result.

The reason for this decrease was another sales dip from the Renault Zoe, ending November with just 288 units sold, being outgunned for #1 by its stablemate Kangoo ZE (336 units). With this in mind, The Elephant Question In The Room is: "What is Renault Doing About This?" Will they let the Zoe slip into into the Sales Failure Room without a fight? 

Looking at the rest of the EV Sales, the first half of the ranking remains stable, with the Smart Fortwo ED climbing one position to #7, thanks to a record sales month, with 100 units sold, but the lower half had two major changes, with the BMW i3 rising three positions to #12 (#6 this month with 49 units), and the VW e-Up! landing with a sizable 24 units (#10 in the month), enabling it to feature in #15.

ps - Merci Benoit pour l'aide dans les numéros.

Pl	France	Nov.	YTD	%	'12Pl
1	Renault Zoe	288	5.233	39	13
2	Renault Kangoo ZE	336	3.884	29	1
3	Nissan Leaf	116	1.272	9	6
4	Bolloré Blue Car	50	611	5	3
5	Renault Twizy e)	40	563	4	2
6	Goupil G3	30	486	4	10
7	Smart Fortwo ED	100	348	3	12
8	Toyota Prius Plug-In e)	20	338	3	7
9	Mia Electric	23	215	2	8
10	Peugeot iOn	32	177	1	5
11	Citröen C-Zero	10	80	1	4
12	BMW i3	49	75	1	N/A
13	Opel Ampera	2	54	0	11
14 15 16 17 18 18 20 21 22 23	Mitsubishi I-Miev Volkswagen e-Up! Tesla Model S Renault Fluence ZE Volvo V60 Plug-In Chevrolet Volt Fisker Karma Ford Focus Electric Neoma Lumeneo Tesla Roadster	2 2	33 24 19 18 15 15 12 4 3 1	0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0	16 N/A N/A 9 N/A 14 15 N/A N/A 17
	TOTAL	1.122	13.480	100

e) Estimate

Source: Manufacturers, Automobile Propre

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EV Sales on Facebook

In a way to improve feedback from our viewers, EV Sales is now on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/EV-Sales/349586295168620

This page for now is just an alert to new articles published on EV Sales, but in the future it might have exclusive content, so stay tuned.

Finally, I want to thank your visits and feedback given, I  hope you will keep enjoying EV Sales as much as I enjoy updating it!

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Memory Lane - Introduction

This new section doesn't want to give a History Lesson about Electric Cars, for that we have Wikipedia, but it's made just to complete with some figures and pictures, the electric car sales preceding the period recorded by EV Sales. This post relates to the first Two Ages of the Electric Car and in the following days i'll post some more regarding the Third Age, the one we now live.


First Age of the Electric Car (1890's - 1920's)

Detroit Electric car, during its lifespan (1907-39), this manufacturer sold 13.000 electric cars

Unlike what many people might think, electric cars are not a novelty, in fact in the end of the 19th century, electric power was competing with gasoline and steam (!) as the preferential source of power for cars, with electric cars in their heyday reaching some 30% share in some markets, being recognized as easier to use, cleaner, quieter and much more economical than their competitors.

The decline began with the mass production of Ford Model T and the subsequential lowering costs of gasoline-powered cars, transforming electric ones in niche cars and then the 1929 economic crisis ended with most electric car manufacturers.


Second Age of the Electric Car (1990's - 2003)

In the beginning of the 1990's, government-led initiatives on both sides of the Atlantic, like the now famous California Air Resources Board (CARB), began a push for more ecological vehicles and several carmakers  developed electric cars as way to respond to that push, here are pictures from some of the most famous models of this Age.

With the end of government support and/or other causes, the beginning of the new century saw the end of those projects and by 2004 only the toy-like REVA G-Wiz was on sale.

Peugeot 106 Electrique - Believe it or not, this was the best selling car of this Age, total production was 6.400 units during its eight year lifespan (1995 - 2003). Its cousin, the Citröen Saxo Electrique sold another 2.500 units, performing a total of 8.900 units for PSA.

Toyota RAV4 EV (1st Generation) - Proof that electric cars are reliable, many of these vehicles are still on the roads today, despite having been produced just 1.484 units between 1997 and 2003.

GM EV1 - Like the Dodo, this car had more fame when it ceased to exist, featuring even in a starring role on a movie around the End of the Second Age. 1.117 units were produced between 1996 and 1999 and in 2002, (in)famously, all were recalled by GM to be scrapped.

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Canada May 2013

Editor's note: I'm back online and to start recovering for the lost time, i'm posting today the american markets data and the rest will follow in the coming days.

New month, new theme: After white, now the theme is black painted EV's

Volt(age) Edition

With the canadian Tesla sales now accounted, the EV market registered 167 new cars in May, an average month that kept the EV share at 0,12%, just 0,01% above last year share.

In the ranking, the Volt is now well ahead of the competition, followed by a surprisingly discrete Nissan Leaf and tied in third comes the Prius Plug-In and the Mitsubishi I-Miev.

Finally, in fifth there's Tesla's Model S, far from delivering here the kind of performance that it has in Uncle Sam's country.

Pl	Canada	May	YTD	%	'12Pl
1	Chevrolet Volt	77	318	38	1
2	Nissan Leaf	31	235	28	2
3	Toyota Prius Plug-In	22	130	16	4
4	Mitsubishi I-Miev	22	81	10	3
5	Tesla Model S	15	62	8	N/A
TOTAL		167	826	100

Source: Good Car Bad Car

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USA All Time Top 5

Editor's Note: I'll be offline for a few days, but to keep feeding the EV Sales weblog, i've decided to post a series of All-Time rankings of the seven largest EV Markets, that allows the analysis of long-term trends of each market.

Here's the first of those posts, dedicated to the US market:

NYPD Volt

The Chevrolet Volt rules here thanks to a great 2012, where it sold twice as much as the second place, the Prius Plug-In, also doing well that year.

Tesla's Model S has an eye in the third place and although the distance is still big, it wouldn't be surprising to see it get there this year.

Pl	Model	Sales (1)
1	Chevrolet Volt	37.008
2	Nissan Leaf	24.988
3	Toyota Prius Plug-In	15.702
4	Tesla Model S	9.603
5	Ford C.Max Energi	3.951

(1) - Updated until April 30th, 2013

Best-Selling models by year:
2010 - Tesla Roadster (+\- 600)
2011 - Nissan Leaf (9.674)
2012 - Chevrolet Volt (23.461)
2013(1) - Tesla Model S (7.050)

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First post

Tesla Model S

Hello, my name is Jose Pontes and i'm a what you can call a car geek, with a particular interest in the green side of the auto landscape.

One thing i realized in the past few months is that there's scarce information about electric vehicles (ev's) sales, so to satisfy my natural curiosity, i started to compile a database with countries where ev's are sold in relevant numbers, divided by models and manufacturers.

After some research (BSCB, BSC, ABG and others), this database started to gain reliable numbers and right now is covering some 25 markets where ev's are sold, from the tiniest (Hong Kong, Monaco) to the largest (USA, China).

The idea for this blog came from the notion that apart from the US market, there's no specific sales information about this segment of the auto market, which is one of the most innovative and exciting areas of the automotive industry.

The reliability of these information varies, mostly because some countries don't have organized sales data, but also because some manufacturers (Please stand up, Fisker and Tesla) don't give accurate data, so if some of this rankings are incomplete, don't be surprised. 

Also, if you have information that completes these rankings, or if you have comments, disagreements, or criticisms, please do so, because i'd like to know your feedback about EV Sales blog.

In the next weeks i'm going to put online posts with data of these 25 markets with a small analysis of each one, along with the global numbers of the EV market.

But before that, in the next days, i'm posting my forecasts for the 2013 EV market.

Stay tuned! 

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