A reader recently pointed out to me a little EV Sales blogspot that had been off my radar. The guy who runs the blog, Jose Pontes, actually comes up with estimates for European-wise electrified vehicle (EV) sales by tracking down EV registrations in as many countries as possible. He also estimates sales for China and Japan. So, in total, he’s covering the top 4 EV markets.
Needless to say, I’m going to start utilizing this data for my own reports. I’m also going to reach out to Jose to see about potential collaboration. For now, below are Europe EV sales for the year of 2013. Coming articles will cover Japan 2013 sales, World 2013 sales, Denmark January 2014 sales, Netherlands January 2014 sales, and Sweden January 2014 sales. (You can also see my already-published reports on US 2013 EV sales, US January 2014 EV sales, and China 2013 EV sales.)
If you look at the December numbers, one of the biggest things that will jump out at you is the surge in Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV sales. This was basically due to expiring incentives for the Netherlands, which led to Mitsubishi rushing Outlander PHEV order to Dutch customers ahead of other markets. Despite showing up late to the game, this electrified SUV came in at #3 for the year in Europe.
The Volvo V60 PHEV also had a stellar month, which helped bring it up to #4. I’m not sure if there’s any special reason for that.
The Nissan Leaf and Renault Zoe, with their steady and relatively strong sales, claimed #1 and #2, respectively. As many say, these are the EV versions of the “Ford Model T,” or at least of the Toyota Prius.
Somewhat surprisingly, a delivery van (the Renault Kangoo ZE) rounded out the top 5. It is again from Renault, and Renault had two other EVs in the top 20 — the Twizy (which was #1 last year) and the Fluence ZE (which was built for Better Place and has just been retired).
The VW e-Up! has shot onto the scene, and the BMW i3 is coming in fairly strong as well. So, I’d expect to see them climb a lot higher over the coming year.
Of course, there are a number of EVs on the list that aren’t available in the US. However, most of them trail at the bottom of the sales list.
Interesting to finally get a good sense of sales in the European EV market! Looking forward to tracking their progress this year.
If you would like to use the chart above and can’t figure out (or use) the iframe code, feel free to use this image (with a link back to this article if you use it online):
