World Top 10 March 2015 (Updated)

BYD Qin in a rare picture outside Showrooms

Models - Springtime Record

A record 42.135 plug-ins were sold last month, which represents a 72% increase regarding the same month last year, so we are on the right track for 400k-plus units this year, with the First Millionth plug-in car to be registered by next September. 

The top position went for the Leaf, with 6.484 units, its best performance since last September.

In #2 we have the Tesla Model S, with a record 5.562 sales, followed in Third by the Mitsu Outlander PHEV, with 5.196 sales, its best result in 15 months, while in #4 we have the BYD Qin (2.476 units, new personal record), leaving the rest of the pack behind and now aiming for the Top 3.

Moving on, the YTD ranking shows one major change, with the Model S from Tesla displacing the Outlander PHEV from the Second Spot, expect the japanese model to fight back next month, this is a fierce race that has been going on since last year, so expect a lot of action coming from these two in the near future. 

A final reference to the bottom places in the table, the Chevrolet Volt family climbed to #8 and the Golf GTE is now #10 (Only 422 sales this month), but the really interesting thing is that behind it, there is a lot of pretenders to the last place in the ranking, as there are three cars in a 100 units-ish proximity of the german car: The #11 BAIC E-Series  EV (1.950 units, 1.431 in March), the #12 Zotye E20 (1.927 units, 1.151 last month) and the #13 Ford Fusion Energi (1.891 / 850), all are really close to Volkswagen's car and all of them are outperforming it, so i wouldn't be surprised if they all surpassed it next month. 

Pl	WORLD	Mar.	YTD	%	'14Pl
1	Nissan Leaf	6.484	13.437	15	1
2	Tesla Model S	5.626	10.030	11	3
3	Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV	5.196	9.849	11	2
4 5 6	BYD Qin BMW i3 Volkswagen e-Golf	2.476 2.012 1.299	6.319 5.277 3.661	7 6 4	7 6 21
7	Renault Zoe	1.349	3.053	3	9
8	Chevrolet Volt (1)	749	2.139	2	4
9	Toyota Prius Plug-In	719	2.081	2	5
10	Volkswagen Golf GTE	442	2.003	2	33
	TOTAL	42.135	89.599

Manufacturers -  Tesla Month

Tesla recovered and it is now at its usual place (Third), while BYD continues ahead of Volkswagen (Das Auto went down two positions), which now has BMW on its heels, looking to displace it from Fifth.

There is a close fight between Ford and Renault for #7, with the french manufacturer running ahead (for now), while the two last spots have been changing hands frequently, it's now time for the chinese Zotye to debut the Top 10, it is #9, relegating Chevrolet to #10 and ditching Toyota out of the Top 10, for the first since 2012!.  

Pl	WORLD	Mar.	YTD	%	'14Pl
1	Nissan	7.053	14.326	16	1
2	Mitsubishi	5.645	10.991	12	2
3	Tesla	5.626	10.030	11	3
4	BYD	3.039	7.418	8	7
5 6 7	Volkswagen BMW Renault	2.021 2.473 1.950	6.424 6.417 4.326	7 7 5	11 9 8
8	Ford	1.757	3.991	4	5
9	Zotye	2.353	3.456	4	13
10	Chevrolet	905	2.513	3	6

(1) - Includes Holden Volt, Opel and Vauxhall Ampera;

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Europe March 2015 (Updated)

Charging the Numbers

Springtime Records - Euro Edition

With some 18.000 units, the European EV market shattered a record it had made in December '13 (14.197 units), that at the time it seemed historic and looked it was going to last for a long, long time...As turns out, it lasted 15 months.

The YTD sales now mount to some 36.000 units, which makes my yearly sales prediction made early this year (120- something thousand), look somewhat conservative, with the current data, i will say that the numbers will end somewhere in the 150K ballpark.

Looking at the models ranking, the Outlander PHEV continues sovereign (4.306 units, best performance since December '13), while the Nissan Leaf is back with a vengeance (3.300 sales), beating not only its own record, but also performing a new monthly record for a pure electric car.

Tesla is next in #3 (2.584 sales, a new personal best), ahead of the Renault Zoe and e-Golf (1.104 units, also personal best.

Pl	Model	Sales
1	Mitsu. Outlander PHEV	4.306
2	Nissan Leaf	3.300
3	Tesla Model S	2.584
4	Renault Zoe	1.343
5	Volkswagen e-Golf	1.104

Looking at the YTD ranking, the headlines belong to the Nissan Leaf and Tesla Model S, the first climbing one position to #2, while the second made a three positions jump, it's now Third, relegating the former runner-up (VW e-Golf), out of the podium, to #4.

In other news, the BMW i3 rose to #6 and in the second half of the ranking, the Audi A3 e-Tron climbed yet again, this time only one position, to #8, while the LCV segment saw an historic change: The Nissan e-NV200 / Evalia twins jumped six(!) positions, to #11, thanks to a record month (508 units), surpassing for the first time the eternal Lord of the Van Ring Renault Kangoo ZE (#12) .

Looking at the brands ranking, there were some significant changes: Volkswagen (17% Share) lost the leadership in favor of Mitsubishi (21%), while Nissan surpassed Renault and is now Third, only a point behind (16%) VW. Can this mean that VW's blitz early in the year is now fading?

Pl	Europe	Mar.	2015	%	'14Pl
1	Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV	4.306	7.355	20	1
2	Nissan Leaf	3.300	5.056	14	2
3	Tesla Model S	2.584	3.748	11	4
4	Volkswagen e-Golf	1.104	3.155	9	9
5	Renault Zoe	1.343	3.038	8	3
6	BMW i3	902	2.026	6	5
7	Volkswagen Golf GTE	442	2.003	6	22
8	Audi A3 e-Tron	811	1.625	5	19
9	Volvo V60 Plug-In	411	1.263	4	7
10	Volkswagen e-Up!	290	789	2	6
11	Nissan e-NV200 / Evalia	508	765	2	12
12	Renault Kangoo ZE	327	675	2	8
13	Smart Fortwo ED	147	618	2	10
14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25	Porsche Cayenne Plug-In BMW i8 Renault Twizy Kia Soul EV Mercedes B-Class ED Peugeot iOn Bolloré Blue Car Mitsubishi I-Miev Citröen C-Zero Toyota Prius Plug-In Mercedes S500 Plug-In Porsche Panamera Plug-In	175 194 231 145 166 119 50 67 119 38 74 27	569 504 494 443 282 269 229 208 165 159 141 110	2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0	28 15 11 23     29 21 13 17 20 14 31 18
	TOTAL	17.994	36.012

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