Australia March 2013

2013 Chevrolet Holden Volt

Like in the UK and other countries, the complete australian sales data is only available in every Quarter of the Year, so i can now post EV sales from down under.

With just 78 sales in a market of 300.000, plug in sales represent a marginal share (0,03%) and still have a long way to go, but the truth is that in 2012 Q1, EV sales counted just 3 units...

The Nissan Leaf is going strong at #1 with 36 units and looking to finally get the best seller crown away from the Mitsubishi I-Miev, holder of that trophy since 2010.

In second comes the Holden Volt, failing to fulfill the initial promises (In the last two months of 2012 it sold 80 units), selling just 27 cars in three months.

Finally in third, the I-Miev, with just 15 cars sold, is starting to fall behind, but we are only at the end of the first quarter and the numbers are still small, so it will have lots of opportunities to catch their opponents until the end of the year.

Pl	Australia	YTD '13	YTD'12
1	Nissan Leaf	36	0
2	Holden Volt	27	N/A
3	Mitsubishi I-Miev	15	3
	TOTAL	78	3

Data: Manufacturers, BSCB

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Finally, I can throw away my 8 tracks

Okay, maybe I'm not old enough to have owned 8-track tapes. But I do remember that my uncle had an 8-track player in the dash of his station wagon when I was a kid, and I am old enough to have owned a car with a cassette player.

Music has been fundamental to the driving experience for about as long as cars have been on the road. Terrestrial radio dominated forever, supplemented by tape and then CD. XM radio came along in 2001 and connecting your iPod started to show up in the late 2000s. That's 5 formats since the Model T was introduced in 1908 (okay, so it didn't  have a radio) and 3 formats in the first 90 years.

Now, with connected cars becoming a reality, the rate of change is shifting into overdrive. Want Pandora – check. Want to listen to the top alternative radio station in Dublin while driving in California – check. Want to keep listening to your Songza programming as you move from the house to the car – check.

Today's announcement from QNX and 7Digital adds a whole new dimension. Having 7Digital in the car will unify the music ownership experience across the big three: car, pocket, and home. Want to listen to your own music programming in the car – check. Want to buy a song you just heard on that Dublin radio station – check.

Read the press release for details. And when you're done, check out the 7digital blog.

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