Romania December 2016

BMW i3 Shines 

If temperatures across Romania have been falling, the local EV market is hotter like never before, with December signaling another record month for plug-ins, with 47 units, pulling the 2016 sales to 172 units, up 142% YoY. True, the starting base is small, but growth is always good, right?

With the EV Share at a record 0.18%, 2016 can be considered Year One for plug-ins in Romania.

These positive results are mostly due to the BMW i3, which had a superb December month, with a record 23 deliveries, pulling it to the leadership position, followed another BMW, the X5 SUV, with 21 units, while the Mercedes GLE500e ended in Third, this being its first podium position anywhere.

In a market strongly driven by SUV's, it is telling that the Tesla Model X outsold its Model S sibling by 7 to 3, despite having arrived only four months ago, meaning that Tesla driving force for growth in this market will be its Sports-SUV.

In the manufacturers ranking, BMW and Mercedes are the only two relevant brands, with the first winning (First manufacturers title here) with a mammoth 47% share, while the second has 22%. The distant Third Placed is Renault, with only 9% share.

Pl	Romania	December	2016	%	Pl '15
1	BMW i3	23	44	26	4
2 3	BMW X5 40e Mercedes GLE500e	3	21 17	12 10	1 6
4	Mitsu. Outlander PHEV  e)	5	15	9	3
5	Mercedes C350e	1	10	6	8
6	BMW i8		9	5	6
6 8 8 8 11 12 12 14 14 14 17 18 18	Volvo XC90 T8 Renault Zoe Tesla Model X Mercedes GLC350e Renault Kangoo ZE Renault Twizy BMW 740e Porsche Cayenne Plug-In Tesla Model S Mercedes B250e BMW 225xe Active Tourer Audi A3 e-Tron BMW 330e	1 2 2 4 2 1 2 1	9 7 7 7 5 4 4 3 3 3 2 1 1	5 4 4 4 3 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1	2 5 N/A N/A N/A 8 N/A 8 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
	TOTAL	47	172	100

Source: http://www.drpciv..ro/

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Romania October 2016

BMW i3 Shines in Developing Market

These last few months have witnessed a stark increase in sales, with October signaling another record month for plug-ins in Romania, with 19 units, with YTD sales at 110 now, this market is growing 86% YoY. True, the starting base is small, but growth is always good, right?

With the EV Share now at a record 0.15%, the needle is starting to move and it is becoming one of the most interesting markets in this part of Europe.

Regarding the latest post, in July, if the BMW X5 PHEV continues in Numero Uno, this being the only market where it leads, the BMW i3 jumped to Second Place, thanks to a record 8 units sold last month, a new record for a single model, followed by the Mercedes GLE500e, climbing to its first podium position anywhere.

In a market strongly driven by SUV's, it is telling that it took the Tesla Model X just a couple of months to surpass its Model S sibling in this ranking, meaning that Tesla driving force for growth in this market will be its newest addition.

In the manufacturers ranking, BMW and Mercedes are the only two relevant brands, with the first having a mammoth 45% share, while the second has 24%. The distant Third Placed is Renault, with only 8% share.

Hopefully, Nissan and Volkswagen local importers will wake up soon to this new reality and join the bandwagon, or else they will lose it to their competitors. 

Pl	Romania	October	2016	%	Pl '15
1	BMW X5 40e		21	19	1
2 3	BMW i3 Mercedes GLE500e	8 3	15 14	14 13	4 6
4	Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV		10	9	3
5	BMW i8		9	8	6
6	Mercedes C350e	1	8	7	8
6 7 8 9 9 11 11 11 14 14 14 14	Volvo XC90 T8 Renault Zoe Renault Twizy Tesla Model X Mercedes GLC350e Porsche Cayenne Plug-In BMW 740e Tesla Model S Audi A3 e-Tron BMW 225xe Active Tourer BMW 330e Mercedes B250e	2 2 1 1 1	8 5 4 3 3 2 2 2 1 1 1 1	7 5 4 3 3 2 2 2 1 1 1 1	2 5 8 N/A N/A 8 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
	TOTAL	19	110	100

Source: http://www.drpciv..ro/

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Romania July 2016

SUV-Land

Last July was the month best ever for plug-ins in Romania, with 13 units, with YTD sales at 60, this market is growing 50% YoY. True, the starting base was small, but growth is always good, right?

With the EV Share now at 0.14%, the needle is starting to move in the Romanian market.

An interesting trend in this market is the plug-in hybrid SUV rule, being responsible for two thirds of sales, after two years of Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV dominion (2014 & '15), SUV's have diversified in the Luxury end, with the BMW X5 PHEV now leading the ranking.

The best cars are only #4, with both the Mercedes C350e and BMW i3 collecting 5 units.

Another existing trend is the Premium brands prevalence, with only Mitsubishi and Renault representing the lower priced segments. Nissan is strangely absent.

Pl	Romania	July	2016	%	Pl '15
1	BMW X5 40e	2	14	23	1
2	Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV		10	17	3
3	Mercedes GLE500e	4	9	15	6
4	Mercedes C350e	4	5	8	8
4	BMW i3		5	8	4
4 7 7 9 10 10	Volvo XC90 T8 Renault Twizy BMW i8 Renault Zoe Tesla Model S Porsche Cayenne Plug-In	1 1	5 4 4 2 1 1	8 7 7 3 2 2	2 8 6 5 N/A 8
	TOTAL	13	60	100

Source: http://www.drpciv.ro/

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Romania December 2015

Debut Edition

We have a new market debuting here on EV Sales, the Romanian EV market seemed to have entered in a sustainable growth trend in 2015, with sales up 208% to 71 units, with the EV Share needle finally moving slightly, now at 0.10%, up from the 0.03% of last year.

The big driving force in this market is Mitsubishi and its Outlander PHEV, which had been already the Best Selling Plug-In in 2014, and now continued to push this market upwards, with 29 units, followed from a far by Tesla, that despite not being officially represented, nevertheless has buyers/fans that import them directly from Tilburg, as explained here.

The third brand on this market is Renault (24% share), that thanks to their Zoe's and Twizzies, is planting seeds for the future...Something that (Strangely) Nissan has failed to do so.

Looking into the future, Mitsubishi will probably continue to rule, regarding on the question of forecasting total numbers for this year, i would say that something between 150-200 units would be a nice number to present at the end of the year..

Romania	2015	%
Mitsu. Outlander PHEV	29	41
Tesla Model S	12	17
Renault Twizy	9	13
Renault Zoe Volkswagen e-Up! BMW i3	8 4 2	11 6 3
BMW i8	2	3
Por. Panamera PHEV VW Golf GTE VW e-Golf Audi A3 e-Tron Toyota Prius Plug-In	1 1 1 1 1	1 1 1 1 1
TOTAL	71	100

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Markets Roundup December 2013 (Special Edition)

Ford C-Max Energi: Miss

I. A Year Ago - Hits and Misses

In the end of last January, i have made some sales predictions regarding 2013, let's see how they worked out:

USA

* 15.000 sales for the C-Max Energi - Not even half (7.154), miss;

* 6.000 sales for the Fusion Energi - 6.090 units sold, right on target;

* 12.000 sales for Tesla - 17.650 sales, Tesla consistently outpaced predictions, including their owns;

* 90-110.000 sales for the US EV market - 96.034 units, comfortably within the prediction boundaries.

Japan

* 6.000 units for the Outlander PHEV - Some 10.000 sold this year, with production problems. Not  even Mitsu was this expecting such a sales success;

* 29.000 sales for the Japanese EV Market - Around 30.000 units, hit;

France

* 2.000-4.000 sales for the Renault Zoe - 5.511 sales. Looking back, i was surprisingly skeptical of the Zoe, i mean, the french supermini wasn't a sales success, but it also wasn't as bad as i predicted; 

*14-16.000 sales for the French EV Market - 14.905 sales, right in the middle of the prediction boundaries.

Germany

* 10.000 sales for the German EV Market - 6.714 sales, well behind expectations. Miss.

Netherlands

* 2.200 sales for the Prius Plug-In - 2.364 units, saved by the last quarter sales. Hit;

* 3.500 sales for the Opel Ampera - With 2.208 units sold, even the sales from the last quarter weren't enough to reach near the prediction. Big miss; 

* 9.000 units sold in the Dutch EV market - 23.170 sales, 9.311 of them in December. Who would of thought?

Norway

7.000-8.500 sales in Norway - 8.669 sales, slightly above the best expectations. At the time i was speaking of 6% EV Share like something amazing, as it turns out, the EV Share in Norway is now at 6,10%...

Global EV Sales

200.000 units - Still with data coming in, the number already exceeds 208.000, so 2013 was a good year for plug-ins.


II. Engines of Growth

* By EV Share 

Two of them are easy to discover, after all, plug-in performance were profusely documented in Norway (6,10% in '13 vs 3,12 in '12) and the Netherlands (5,55% in '13 vs 1,10% in '12). But the third market is something of a surprise, with the EV Share in Iceland jumping from 0,21% in 2012 to 0,94% in '13! With all the hydro-thermal energy they have and the small distances associated to an island, EV sales in Iceland should continue to grow exponentially and maybe become something like a Second Norway...

* By Volume

EV Share is important, but even more fundamental is the volume increase, and in this case we had the USA as the main contributor, with more 41.084 units sold regarding 2012, the Netherlands, with more 17.587 sales, and...China, even with a miserable 0,08% EV Share, what matters here is volume and 0,08% of 22 million cars is still a lot of cars, and plug-ins sold more 4.851 regarding last year.


III. 2013 vs 2012

Let's compare #1's of this year with the ones of 2012:

Volt - USA (In '12 - Volt); Canada (Volt)

Leaf - Norway (In '12 - Leaf); UK (Leaf); Spain (Twizy); Denmark (Fluence ZE); Australia (I-Miev); Estonia (I-Miev); Iceland (I-Miev)

Outlander PHEV - Japan (In '12 - Prius Plug-In); Netherlands (Opel Ampera);

Zoe - France (In '12 - Kangoo ZE); Switzerland (Twizy); Austria (Twizy)

V60 Plug-In - Belgium (In '12 - Twizy); Sweden (Prius Plug-In); Finland (Prius Plug-In)

Twizy - Italy (In '12 - Twizy); Portugal (Twizy)

Fortwo ED - Germany (In '12 - Twizy)

Fluence ZE - Hong Kong (In '12 - Leaf)

QQ3 EV - China (In '12 - QQ3 EV)

Examining this, we can see North America as a Volt stronghold, the Leaf stealing trophies from the I-Miev, the Outlander and V60 doing the same at the Prius, the Zoe cannibalizing #1's in Central Europe and the Twizy resisting extinction in the south of the continent.


IV. Other Markets

For some reason (Low volumes, rare data, etc) some markets have been left-out, here is a chance to know some of them:

Israel: Renault Fluence ZE - 436 units; Nissan Leaf (24).

Czech Republic: Nissan Leaf - 16 units; Peugeot iOn (8); Citröen C-Zero (6); BMW i3 (3); Opel Ampera (2); Fisker Karma (1); Porsche Panamera Plug-In (1).

Poland: Nissan Leaf - 15 units; Opel Ampera (5); Tesla Model S (4); BMW i3 (4); Renault Zoe (2); Renault Twizy (2); Smart Fortwo ED (1).

Romania: Renault Fluence ZE - 28 units; Citröen C-Zero (2); Nissan Leaf (1); Toyota Prius Plug-In (1); Tesla Model S (1).

Bulgaria: Renault Twizy - 14 units.

Russia: Mitsubishi I-Miev - 70 units.

Morocco: Renault Twizy - 7 units.

Mexico: Nissan Leaf - 73 units.


V. Predictions for the G7

USA - 110-130.000 units/year, Leaf #1;

Japan - 36-39.000 units/year, Outlander #1;

France - 15-18.000 units/year, Zoe #1;

Netherlands - 15-19.000 units/year, Outlander #1;

Germany - 10.000 units/year, German Car #1;

China - 23.000-28.000 units/year, Qin #1.

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