USA February 2015

The current sales surprise 

Red Edition

6.748 plug-ins were sold in the US, an improvement over the previous month, but a 7% decrease over the same month last year, with the top three ending the month close to each other, with only 109 units separating the First (Nissan Leaf - 1.198) from the Third (BMW i3 - 1.089 units), a deserved mention to the little Bimmer, while the market is softening and has just entered the dreaded the Red Zone (12.573 sales YTD vs 12.740 last year), the german hatch has pulled its second best ever performance, with 1.089 sales, placing it in Third and with the top two not that far off, if BMW can work out the production constraints regarding carbon fiber, we could still see the i3 on the podium by the end of this year.

Behind the podium seats, we find the Chevy Volt, waiting for the new Gen to arrive, followed by the Energi brothers from Ford, with the MPV C-Max having surpassed this month the agonizing Prius Plug-In, falling into consecutive new lows (401 units in January, 397 now), while at the same time slipping down on the ranking (It's now #7).

Behind the Prius it appears the first of the "C" division (As in Compliance Division), with the Mercedes B-Class ED leading the pack, followed closely by the VW e-Golf, while in #10 we now have the Fiat 500e, which benefited from a sales stumble of the Smart Fortwo ED (Only 76 units sold), which dropped from #10 to #12.

In the "P" division (As in Premium Division), the BMW i8 continues to impress, selling 113 units and staying above the more vulgar Porsche Cayenne Plug-In (106 sales).

A final report on the manufacturers ranking, with four(!) brands fighting for Number One, Nissan is ahead (18% Share and 2.268 units), followed closely by Ford (17%, 2.152), Tesla (17%, 2.111) and BMW (16%, 1.957 units), this will be an entertaining fight that Chevrolet (#5, with 11% Share) will be looking to join once the 2nd Gen Volt is up and running.

Pl	USA	Feb.	YTD	%
1	Nissan Leaf	1.198	2.268	18
2	Tesla Model S e)	1.110	2.111	17
3	BMW i3	1.089	1.759	14
4	Chevrolet Volt	693	1.235	10
5	Ford Fusion Energi	603	1.029	8
6	Ford C-Max Energi	498	893	7
7	Toyota Prius Plug-In	397	798	6
8	Mercedes B-Class ED	109	349	3
9	Volkswagen e-Golf	130	311	2
10	Fiat 500e	117	236	2
11	Ford Focus Electric	145	230	2
12 13 14 14	Smart Fortwo ED Cadillac ELR Chevrolet Spark EV BMW i8	76 127 119 113	223 219 205 198	2 2 2 2
16 17 18 19 20 21 22	Porsche Cayenne Plug-In Kia Soul EV P. Panamera Plug-In Porsche 918 Honda Accord Plug-In Toyota RAV4 EV Mitsubishi I-Miev	106 48 40 14 12 2 2	189 117 101 48 40 9 5	2 1 1 0 0 0 0
	TOTAL	6.748	12.573	100

Source: insideevs.com

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Canada February 2015

Canada's new favorite / La nouvelle préférée do Canada

Three Kings Edition

With 186 sales in February, the Canadian EV market suffered with the poor weather and was down 25% regarding the same month last year, placing the EV Share at 0,22%, besides cold temperatures, another factor to help explain the low performance is the sales dive of the Chevy Volt, Canada's favorite plug-in, while in February '14 there were 98 registrations, the veteran hatch now only sold 38 units, almost a third. It looks Canadians are longing for the Second Gen Volt and disregarding the current one.

The other two significant models here, the Leaf and Model S, sold in similar numbers of the Volt, leaving them as they were in January, something that could also be said about the #4 BMW i3, after surprising the competition south of the border, it looks that the little Bimmer also wants to catch the Top 3 and shake the waters.

Looking at the rest of the models ranking, the other BMW, the i8 is also putting a decent run, just like the Kia Soul EV.

A surprising number is that PHEV's currently only account for 35% of the market, a new low, their share has been shrinking consistently from the 70% of 2012 to the 35% of today, something that also is related to the Volt, as it is the only PHEV present in the top four positions.

Pl	Canada	Feb.	YTD	%
1	Tesla Model S e)	40	139	30
2	Chevrolet Volt	38	109	24
3	Nissan Leaf	38	74	16
4	BMW i3	31	55	12
5 6	BMW i8 e) Kia Soul EV e)	10 10	23 21	5 5
7	Ford Fusion Energi e)	6	12	3
8 9	Ford C-Max Energi e) Smart Fortwo ED e)	6 5	10 9	2 2
10	Cadillac ELR	2	6	1
11 12 13	Mitsubishi I-Miev Chevrolet Spark EV Porsche 918		3 1 1	1 0 0
	TOTAL	186	463	100

e) Estimate

Source: Greencarreports; Inside EV's

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