USA March 2015

Surprise of the Month

"What tha...FIAT?!?" Edition

More than 10.000 plug-ins were sold in the US last month, the first time that we see five-digit numbers in the first quarter, although the growth rate is a meager 12% improvement over the same month last year, confirming that the US EV market is:

a) Plateauing, derived from falling gas prices;

b) Waiting for new models, coming in the second half of the year (Volt II, Model X, next Prius Plug-in, etc).

But while these highly anticipated models are a few months away, there is plenty of animation with the current players, starting with Fiat, delivering what it could sound like an April fool's prank: 1.310 units were delivered last month, far higher from the hundred-something we got used to, is FCA finally realizing the tremendous potential of the electric version of its cute 500? I will only believe it when they start selling it outside the current markets (California and Oregon).

If it weren't the outlandish result of the 500e, the head title would be dedicated to the Model S, after losing the last two monthly Best Seller trophies to the Leaf by less than 100 units, in March Tesla hit the accelerator pedal and delivered some 2.400 units, stealing at the same time the YTD leadership from the japanese car, which has been consistently selling less than last year.

Behind the podium seats, the referred 500e surged to #7, even surpassing the Prius Plug-in, that despite a small spike in sales (473 sales, best result of the year), continues to drift slowly down the ranking.

In the Caddie ELR vs BMW i8 private duel, the german car continues to impress, selling 143 units in March and surpassing the GM offer in the YTD chart, with the new Cadillac boss recently announcing the end of the ELR, it looks that BMW will have the sports-car segment all for itself, at least until a certain Audi R8 e-Tron shows up...

Final references on the manufacturers ranking, there's a new Number One, Tesla is ahead (20% Share), followed closely by Nissan (18%) and Ford (17%), while the PHEV share of the market as its smallest expression ever, with only 35%. The difference that a retiring Volt does, eh?

Pl	USA	March	YTD	%
1	Tesla Model S e)	2.400	4.511	20
2	Nissan Leaf	1.817	4.085	18
3	BMW i3	922	2.681	12
4	Chevrolet Volt	639	1.874	8
5	Ford Fusion Energi	837	1.866	8
6	Ford C-Max Energi	715	1.608	7
7	Fiat 500e e)	1.310	1.546	7
8	Toyota Prius Plug-In	473	1.271	6
9	Volkswagen e-Golf	195	506	2
10	Mercedes B-Class ED	145	494	2
11	Ford Focus Electric	140	370	2
12 13 14 15	Chevrolet Spark EV BMW i8 Smart Fortwo ED Cadillac ELR	151 143 103 92	356 341 326 311	2 1 1 1
16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23	Porsche Cayenne Plug-In Kia Soul EV P. Panamera Plug-In Porsche 918 Honda Accord Plug-In Mitsubishi I-Miev Toyota RAV4 EV Honda Fit EV	72 63 44 10 5 10 4 1	261 180 145 58 45 15 13 1	1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0
	TOTAL	10.291	22.864	100

Source: insideevs.com

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Sweden March 2015

What's happening to you?

Springtime Records - Swedish Edition

March brings Springtime to the northern hemisphere, with warmer temperatures and increased plug-in sales, as it is the case in Sweden, where a record 702 EV's were registered, which is a 64% sales increase regarding the same month last year, pulling the EV Share north of last year record (1,66%).

Looking at the Monthly models ranking, the Outlander PHEV had the runner-up closer than usual, with the surprising Nissan Leaf selling 132 units, its best result since last August.

Next is the Tesla Model S, with 98 units, its personal best ever, but the best representative of this "March Madness" is in Number Four, the Nissan e-NV200 / Evalia twins score 68 units, which is not only a personal best for Nissan's van, but also a new record for LCV's!  

Finally, in Fifth we have the BMW i3, posting another personal best in the ranking, with 51 units, 46 of them equipped with the Range Extender.

Pl	Model	Sales
1	Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV	190
2	Nissan Leaf	132
3	Tesla Model S	98
4	Nissan e-NV200 / Evalia	68
5	BMW i3	51

Looking at the YTD chart, if the leadership continues in the same hands for over a year, from the #2 down, things were shaky this month, with the Leaf rising three positions to Second Place (A remarkable recovery, considering that the japanese car was #9 only two months ago), while the Model S is also on on the upwards trend, rising two positions to #3, while thanks to their brilliant performance this past month, the e-NV200 / Evalia duo climb six(!) positions to #5, leaving at the same time its LCV rival, the Kangoo ZE, in the dust (The french car dropped two positions to #11).

Speaking of losers, the Volvo V60 Plug-In and the Toyota Prius Plug-in, both vehicles with a fine history in this market (Volvo's car was the Best-Seller in 2013 and #2 in the next year, while the Prius was Best-Seller in 2012 and runner-up in '13), had a major drop this month, with the first selling losing three positions to #6, and the second tumbling five positions to #7, having sold only 10 units.

A side effect of last month Tesla and Nissan's sales surge, is that pure electrics, aka BEV's, are outselling Plug-in hybrids (52% vs 48%) for the first time since 2011!

Pl	Sweden	Mar.	YTD '15	%	'14Pl
1	Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV	190	430	33	1
2	Nissan Leaf	132	172	13	3
3	Tesla Model S	98	138	11	4
4	BMW i3 *	51	97	7	6
5	Nissan e-NV200 / Evalia **	68	84	6	11
6	Volvo V60 Plug-In	23	71	5	2
7	Toyota Prius Plug-In	10	61	5	6
8	Audi A3 e-Tron	35	57	4	15
9	Volkswagen e-Up!	19	47	4	9
10 11 12 13 14 14 16 17 18 18 18 18	Volkswagen e-Golf Renault Kangoo ZE Renault Zoe Kia Soul EV Mercedes B-Class ED BMW i8 Opel Ampera Citröen Berlingo EV Mercedes S500 Plug-In Ford Focus Electric Porsche 918 Porsche Panamera Plug-In	20 10 26 5 3 4 2 1	45 39 36 11 5 5 3 2 1 1 1 1	3 3 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0	13 5 8 23 N/A 18 12 15 N/A 23 20 17
	TOTAL	702	1.307	100

* - 5 BEV + 46 Rex

** -  44 LCV's + 24 Passenger vehicles

Source: bilsweden.se

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