Plug-in hybrids appear to be gaining significant market share in Norway, possibly at the expense of all-electric vehicles, going by the May 2016 sales figures recently compiled by the EV Sales blog.
Year-on-year sales growth for plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) during May 2016 in Norway was 132% — as compared to an all-electric (EV) year-on-year increase of 24%. Total EV share for the month (PHEVs + EVs) was 29.3% — with the year-on-year increase being 23%, for a total of 3,340 units sold.
Much of the increase seems to be down to strong Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV sales (490 sold during May), and relatively weak EV sales (320 Nissan LEAF sales, etc). A number of pure-electric cars with improved range are slated for release later this year and in 2017, so that may factor in as well.
The rankings for the month are: the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV in first (490 units); the Nissan LEAF in second (320 units); the Volkswagen Passat GTE in third (313 units); the Volkswagen e-Golf in fourth (300 units); and the Volkswagen Golf GTE in fifth (268 units).
The EV Sales blog provides more:
The VW e-Golf continues on the downward trend, with 300 units registered, less than half (606) of what registered twelve months ago, the improved range is still a few months away, so expect this slowing sales trend to continue throughout the year.
…Looking at the Year-to-date EV ranking, the main news was Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV reaching the second position, pushing the Nissan Leaf to third place. At this pace, it wouldn’t be surprising if the Japanese SUV soon reached the first position, which would be something unheard of for a PHEV in Norway.
A special mention for the good numbers presented by two Mercedes: The B250e registered 167 units (year best), jumping three positions to #10, while the GLC350e registered 161 units right in its second month in the market, leaving good indications that the three-pointed-star automaker might have a winner here.
Looking at the manufacturers ranking, Volkswagen (32%) continues in the lead, followed at a distance by Nissan (14%) and Mitsubishi (13%, up 1%), while BMW (11%) is on the lookout for a slip from the adversaries to join the podium.
As far as the overall auto market, the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV was actually the best-selling vehicle of any type in Norway during May. Followed by the ICE version of the Volkswagen Golf (486 units) and the Toyota Yaris (483 units).
This is quite depressing to me because I expected Norway to really continue to favour EVs. If even they’re going in this direction, then I would expect here in the UK for PHEVs to take 95% or more of the so called electric vehicle market for the foreseeable future.
I guess the only positive thing to take from this is that with PHEVs included in the stats, it shouldn’t take very long at all before they get over 50% of total car sales in Norway.