Germany’s electric vehicle incentives are now in full effect. How has this affected sales of plug-in electric cars in the country? Apparently, not all that much, going by the July 2016 sales estimates for the German market that were just released by the EV Sales blog.
Electric car sales in July (as compared to July 2015) were actually somehow down by 11% — to just 1,807 units. Somehow, that represents the best result in 4 months in Germany, but it is still rather underwhelming considering the new incentives on offer.
The share of Germany’s overall automotive market held by electric vehicles in July was 0.62%, which is down a bit from the 0.75% market share held in 2015.
Despite the overall downslide, the Audi Q7 e-Tron made a respectable debut, with 129 units registered during its first full month of availability.
In first for the month (and the year through July) was the Renault Zoe, with 301 units registered, a year’s best for the model that made for a substantial margin of dominance over those following behind. This was the third month in a row that the Zoe was #1. The Volkswagen e-Golf was quite far behind in second, with 136 units registered. The BMW i3 was inches below in third, with 134 units registered (62 all-electrics, and 72 range-extended versions). In fourth was the aforementioned Audi Q7 e-Tron, with 129 units registered. And in fifth was the Volkswagen Passat GTE, with 109 units registered.
The EV Sales blog provides a bit more information, noting: “The BMW i3 is preparing itself for the predictable sales surge of the upcoming months, reaching third last month, while the VW e-Golf might have been the only domestic model to take full profit of the incentives, surging to second place in July, with 136 units, its best performance in a year, outselling for the second consecutive month its PHEV sibling, the Golf GTE.”
As far as year-to-date movement in the rankings, the Volkswagen e-Golf surged to 9th from 12th; the Audi Q7 e-Tron went straight to 13th; the BMW 330e climbed to 17th from the 18th position (220 units sold so far this year); and the Volvo V60 plug-in hybrid rose to 24th from 26th, following its best month of registrations so far in 2016.
Manufacturer rankings were more or less unchanged, with Volkswagen taking first (19% market share); BMW taking second (16%); Renault taking third (16%); and Audi taking fourth (10%). In other words, despite the Renault Zoe’s stronghold on the gold medal position, German automakers dominate German electric car sales.
