Norway December 2015

e-Golf, 2015 Best Selling Car in Norway

Some 3.000 units were sold last month, twice as much as the same month last year, with the EV Share ending the year at 22.8%, a significant departure from the 14% recorded last year.

The Monthly ranking didn't had  much surprises, with the VW e-Golf steady in the leadership, followed by  strong performances ot the Outlander PHEV and BMW i3 (415 units, new pb), while the Renault Zoe is finding a place on this important market, rd, having registered a new sales record in December, with 229 units.

On the other hand, the Nissan Leaf only registered 19 units, its worst result ever in Norway...The 30kWh version is eagerly awaited by Nissan Norway to change the sales free-fall experienced by the Leaf in recent months.

Pl	Model	Sales
1	Volkswagen e-Golf	589
2	Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV	444
3	BMW i3	415
4	Tesla Model S	373
5	Renault Zoe	229

Looking at the YTD ranking, the last minute changes only occurred in the second half of the table, with the Nissan Evalia / E-NV200 twins rising to #14, the Kangoo ZE up one position to #17, while the newcomers VW Passat GTE (#20) and Mercedes C350e (#22) managed to climb a couple more positions before year end.

Just to see how EV's are in Norway, there are five plug-in models spreaded across the Norwegian Top 15 Auto market:

#1. VW e-Golf

#5. Tesla Model S

#9. Nissan Leaf

#11. Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV

#15. BMW i3

Looking at the manufacturers ranking, Volkswagen (37%) renewed the Title, this time with a more comfortable margin to the runner-up Tesla (12%), which relegated Nissan to Third, with 11% share.

Below, you will find the 2015 Trophy Room:

Best Selling BEV: Volkswagen e-Golf, 8.943 units. Extraordinary result for the VW e-Golf, the 8.943 units sold not only represent a 87% increase over the 2014 result of that year Best Seller, the Nissan Leaf, but it is also the first time an electric vehicle ends the year as the Best Selling Passenger Car of any market, with the previous best belonging to the 2014 performance of the Nissan Leaf, which ended in Third;

Best Selling PHEV & SUV: Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, 2.875 units. Also last year winner in these two categories, the japanese SUV almost doubled sales regarding last year, allowing it to rise two positions in the EV ranking, ending in Fourth, while on the general ranking it achieved a honorable #11, being also the Second Best Selling SUV, behind the Toyota Rav4;

Best Selling Small Car: BMW i3, 2.403 units. After losing the 2014 title for the VW e-Up!, the BMW i3 won the Best Selling Small Car, while improving its 2014 score by 18% and assuring the #15 in the general ranking (It was #21 in '14) and the runner-up place in its class, behind the Toyota Yaris;

Best Selling Van: Nissan e-NV200 / Evalia, 510 units. After the surprise win of the Peugeot Partner EV in 2014, this time the Nissan twins didn't left a chance for discussion to the competition, tripling sales regarding the runner-up (Renault Kangoo ZE);

Rookie Of The Year: Volkswagen Golf GTE, 2.000 units. As in other countries, the Golf GTE received a warm welcome in Norway, swooned by the sporty feel & electric range mix of the VAG product. As a curious note, this same trophy had gone for the VW e-Golf in 2014...   

Looking at the BEV / PHEV share, PHEV's gained significant ground, growing from 10% in 2014, to the current 25%.

In 2016 the VW e-Golf will have stronger competition in the race for #1, not only from the increasingly menacing Mitsu Outlander PHEV and the 30kWh-rejuvenated Nissan Leaf, but also from internal competition, as are the case of the Golf GTE and Passat GTE. And don't forget Tesla, that will count with the Model X addition in the second half of the year to help win a couple of monthly trophies. As for sales predictions, i would say that growth will come from the PHEV's increasing importance and my guess for the EV Market will be around 45k and some 30%(!) share... 

Pl	Norway	Dec.	YTD'15	%	'14Pl
1	Volkswagen e-Golf	589	8.943	26	5
2	Tesla Model S	373	4.039	12	2
3	Nissan Leaf	19	3.189	9	1
4	Mitsu Outlander PHEV	444	2.875	8	6
5	BMW i3	415	2.403	7	4
6	Volkswagen Golf GTE	127	2.000	6	N/A
7	Audi A3 e-Tron	110	1.704	5	21
8 9	Renault Zoe Volkswagen e-Up!	229 97	1.634 1.507	5 4	8 3
10 11	Mercedes B-Class ED Kia Soul EV	90 46	1.352 866	4 3	N/A 7
12 13	Volvo V60 Plug-In e) Peugeot iOn	115 59	825 570	2 2	14 11
14	Nissan e-NV200 / Evalia e)	30	510	1	15
15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31	Mitsubishi I-Miev Citröen C-Zero Renault Kangoo ZE e) Peugeot Partner EV e) BMW X5 40e PHEV Volkswagen Passat GTE e) Smart Fortwo ED Mercedes C350e Citröen Berlingo EV Porsche Cayenne Plug-In BMW i8 Ford Focus Electric Mercedes GLE500e Toyota Prius Plug-In Renault Twizy Mercedes S500e Opel Ampera	3 38 40 15 30 12 35 2 3	490 437 166 160 105 95 92 85 76 72 38 29 25 22 16 8 2	1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0	9 8 19 12 N/A N/A 22 N/A 16 N/A 20 13 N/A 17 21 N/A 21
	TOTAL	2.921	34.336	100

Source: ofvas.no; elbil.no

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Denmark December 2015

Tesla in Ludicrous Mode

Last month, Tesla scored a historic 1.248 units! 

Although comprehensible, considering the upcoming fiscal changes, it nonetheless impresses by the sheer volume in a small auto market like this one, probably setting a monthly record that will last for several years. Oh, and of course, this performance allowed the Model S to be the best selling car is Denmark in December, a first for an electric car and something that we won't see repeated in the next couple of years...

The total number for 2015 in the Danish EV market stands at 4.762 units, up an amazing 190%, with the EV Share shooting to 2,29%, more than doubling last year result of 0.88%. 

But this sales-fever will have its flip side in 2016, with a massive sales hangover and symbolic numbers in the first months of the year.

In other news...The rest of the ranking kept their positions in December, with the exception of the Kia Soul EV, up to #12, thanks to a record...6 sales.

Speaking of records, a couple more models increased their personal bests last month, like the Renault Twizy (9 units), Mercedes B-Class ED (16) and VW e-Golf (17).

Regarding the manufacturers ranking, Tesla ended miles away from everyone else, with 57% share, while last year winner, Nissan, ended in Second, with 15% share, followed by BMW (14%), in Third.

In the BEV / PHEV breakdown, PHEV's are a small minority here, with only 3% share, but last year they had only 1%...Expect a revolution in this regard this year, as BEV's wont have the fiscal advantages they had before. 

A final mention to Fuel Cell Vehicle sales, this is becoming one of the most important markets for this technology, with 13 units sold in December, 11 of them being Hyundai's, while the remaining 2 were Toyota Mirai. All in all, 30 FCEV's were registered in 2015, with 25 being Hyundai and 5 Toyota, as for market share for Fuel Cells, we are at 0.01%...

Looking into 2016, basically it's Year Zero all over again, the fiscal changes will push back sales in a big way, while also blurring lines for the Best Seller trophies. My guess will be that PHEV's will jump to the first spots, with the Mitsu Outlander PHEV as a strong candidate to #1, followed closely by a group of German plug-in hybrid models. As for total numbers, i would go with some 1.5k units by the end of 2016. 

Pl	Denmark	Dec.	YTD	%	'14 Pl
1	Tesla Model S	1.248	2.736	57	2
2	BMW i3 *	92	645	14	5
3	Nissan e-NV200 / Evalia **	87	470	10	6
4	Renault Zoe	44	330	7	4
5	Nissan Leaf	106	224	5	1
6	Volkswagen e-Golf	17	92	2	9
7 8 9	Mercedes C350e e) Volkwagen e-Up! Mercedes B-Class ED	20 2 16	80 54 40	2 1 1	N/A 3 12
10 11 12 13 14	Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV Renault Twizy Kia Soul EV Mercedes S500e Citröen Berlingo EV	1 9 6 1	30 23 10 9 6	1 0 0 0  0	8 7 N/A N/A 16
14 16 17 17	Renault Kangoo ZE BMW i8 Mitsubishi I-Miev Peugeot Partner EV	2	6 4 1 1	0 0 0 0	14 17 N/A 17
	TOTAL	1.652	4.762	100

Source: www.bilimp.dk

*  - 31 Bev + 61 Rex

** - 26 pass + 61 lcv

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