2014 Toyota Prius V Review: great fuel economy and the cargo space

2014 Toyota Prius V Review: Despite the fact that it imparts design signals, a mixture electric powertrain, and a model name with the commonplace Toyota Prius liftback model, the 2014 Toyota Prius V wagon is really an altogether diverse vehicle. It imparts no sheetmetal to the Prius hatchback, and dimensionally, its higher, longer, and has much more volume inside for individuals and their

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Markets Roundup September 2014

The Outlander PHEV is proving to be a Sales Champ

Top 10 EV Shares

Here are the top 10 markets with largest EV Share today:

Country   % '14.....'13.......'12

Norway	14,38.....6,10.....3,12
Netherlands	4,07.....5,55.....1,10
Iceland	2,14.....0,94.....0,21
Sweden	1,67.....0,71.....0,43
Estonia	1,49.....0,68.....2,39
Japan	0,94.....0,92.....0,77
France	0,86.....0,84.....0,66
USA	0,70.....0,62.....0,39
Denmark	0,67.....0,29.....0,29
Switzerland	0,59.....0,44.....0,41

As you can see, although different, there are some common characteristics in these markets: Most (If not all) have fiscal incentives regarding plug-ins, while the majority enjoy high living standards.

Comparing their current EV shares with the one had in the past, there are differences between each market, while Norway, Iceland, Sweden have been growing exponentially in the past years, the USA are experiencing a steady climb over the years, something that this year Japan and France are finding harder to achieve.

As for Switzerland and Denmark, something clicked this year, making their EV Share rise faster than in the previous year.

The Netherlands has a different situation from the others, because if we compare with last year result of 5,55%, the Share decrease is significant, but considering that there was a fiscal-changes-derived-rush late last year, it would be better to compare with the 2012 performance, time when the EV Share was at 1,10%, so there is also a sensible progression here.

Finally, Estonia. Thanks to a deal made by the Estonian government back in 2011, Mitsubishi flooded the local market with I-Miev's, pulling the EV Share to a sky-high 2,39% in 2012, making it the second largest Share, only behind Norway. Naturally, when the agreement ended in 2013, the EV Share suffered a drawback, to 0,68%, which it wasn't all too shabby, allowing it still to be the #7 in this parameter. Now sales are doubling and returning to the levels of 2012, only this time it's consumers originating demand instead of governmental sales deals.

 







Trends in the G8 

There were several records broken in the Top Markets, beginning with China and the UK, both shattering their previous sales records (12k instead of 5,7k for China and 3k inst. of 1k in the UK), and France beating expectations and also improving its sales record (Record now at 2,3k), only the Netherlands sold poorly, selling only 1,1k.

Regarding EV Shares, China continues to grow significantly (Now at 0,33%), but there are also other markets growing fast, like the German, where plug-ins continue to climb (0,46% vs 0,38% last month) at a fast pace, while in the UK the EV market jumped yet again from 0,33% to the current 0,42%. With France and Japan back at positive territory, only Holland (4,07%) is behind last year result (5,55%).

Looking at the models ranking of each country, Tesla did great in the US, but it was the Nissan Leaf that took the local Monthly Best Seller trophy, while Kandi left everyone in China (And elsewhere) amazed with their numbers, in Japan the Leaf continues to win over the Outlander PHEV, something that was reversed in the UK, with the japanese SUV breaking the all-time sales record by a fair margin. The Leaf regained the Monthly Best Selling scepter in Norway, just like Smart in Germany, while the Zoe went back to form in France, performing a Year Best.

In the Netherlands the Outlander PHEV continues their rule while the runner-up V60 Plug-In was dethroned this month from the Second Spot by the Model S.





Questions for October

1 - Will the Leaf continue to impress and add more titles to its collection?

2 - Who will be #1 in Norway? And in Germany?

3 - Will the e-Golf start to collect #1's?

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