Germany Plug-in Car Registrations Report (March Registrations)
Originally published on EV Obsession:
In yet another European country, I’ve run into complications getting full registration numbers for plug-in hybrid electric cars. Unfortunately, many countries just lump gasoline/diesel and plug-in hybrid electric versions of the same model together when reporting model registrations. Odd, considering how different the gasoline/diesel and plug-in hybrid versions are.
KBA.de released official German registration numbers for all car models earlier this month. However, it didn’t break out the VW e-Up! from the VW Up, nor did it break out the Smart Electric Drive from the Smart ForTwo. Unfortunately, the VW e-Up! and Smart Electric Drive are two of the most popular plug-in cars in Germany.
Luckily, Jose Pontes of EV-Sales Blogspot has pulled some numbers from somewhere. I’m not sure how accurate they are, but I’m going with those for now.
Using the numbers from these two sources, for the year to date, the BMW i3 continues to be the #1 plug-in car in Germany (32% market share), and the VW e-Up! is holding its spot at #2 (21%). But #3 is now the Tesla Model S (12%) and #4 the Nissan LEAF (11%), with the Renault Zoe (10%) and Smart Electric Drive (10%) falling considerably.
For March, it’s a similar story. The BMW i3 was #1 again (27% market share), the Model S rose to #2 (17%), the Nissan LEAF rose to #3 (16%), the VW e-Up! fell to #4 (14%), the Smart Electric Drive fell to #5 (13%), and the Renault Zoe fell to #6 (11%). After that, everyone is playing for peanuts.
I was surprised to see the VW e-Up! fall so much, but it was actually more a case of other models rising. The e-Up! had more sales in March than February (119 vs 101). The Smart Electric Drive also had more (108 vs 84), as did the Renault Zoe (95 vs 62). But the other top models simply rose much more (Tesla Model S: 143 vs 66; Nissan LEAF: 131 vs 24; BMW i3: 230 vs 179).
This is one of the most interesting EV markets in the world now. I’m curious to see how next month turns out.
For February sales data, see: BMW i3 Dominates Germany Electric Cars Sales In February, Inches Below VW e-Up! YTD.
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I knew German EV sales would take off when German EVs became available. Now they need to pass some EV incentives in order to further improve those sales, reduce reliance on Putin’s oil & gas, and provide battery storage for all their renewable electricity.
Do you know what incentives the country actually offers?
This seem to be the only one.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/07/germany-electricvehicles-tax-idUSL5N0EJ1Y320130607
So nothing for private buyers (except for like $50-100 in registration tax every year that they won’t have to pay for the first 10 years… which is as close to nothing as you get when it comes to EV incentives).
Wow, surprised with such poor incentives that it’s selling as many as it is. I thought Germany had a tax credit of 5000 euros or so, but also not finding anything like that. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_incentives_for_plug-in_electric_vehicles#Germany
It’s interesting seeing the natural markets versus the markets on steroides (or rather incentives).
But some countries are very disappointing. Like Denmark, UK and Ireland that have high incentives and already good infrastructure but little sales.
I read somewhere that the danish incentives are even higher than the norwegian.
And if you go regularly into the center of London (like working there) and go through the city tolls then you could get a Nissan Leaf that will pay itself in 3-4 years by just the £5k EV incentive + not having to pay the tolls.
Well, $2.33 US a liter for gasoline in Germany, or about $8.50 US a gallon, is quite an incentive.
Americans are spending $16.00 a gallon on gasoline when other costs are included like oil war costs, health issues, trade debts, etc.
That comes to about $4 trillion a year or 4 times the current US defence budget. Without running any numbers that seems a little high to me, but it’s certainly true that people aren’t paying the full price for gasoline. There are a lot of externalities that aren’t priced in.
free renewable (solar) charging with storage for at night is the only incentive every country should adopt, it’s cheap, permanent. What more incentive do people need then driving for free? (exapt cost of the car insurance and taxes)
Wants it really takes off, I don’t think people would mind paying extra taxes to maintain the chargers.
Could also help solar roadways, but thats a different discussion
ps what the hack will happen to public transport, in the future?!