Electric Car Sales Increased 42% Globally In Q1 2016

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Originally published on EV Obsession.

Global electric vehicle sales figures for Quarter 1 2016 were recently released by EV-Volumes (along with preliminary figures for April), revealing that plug-in sales in 2016 to date totaled 180,500 units. That’s a roughly 42% year-on-year increase as compared to the same period of time in 2015.

The above figures, it should be noted, are with regard to all-electrics (EVs), plug-in hybrids (PHEVs), and also light-commercial electric vehicles.

While growth was still high in Quarter 1 2016, it didn’t quite match the highs of late 2015. EV-Volumes provides more on that:

Growth slowed down compared to (late) last year, which was 71% higher than 2014. Q4-2015 was particularly strong, in anticipation of lowered incentives in a number of markets for 2016, notably in the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, and for mini-EVs in China.

Many of these preempted sales were subtracted from the 1st quarter of 2016. In terms of volume growth, +52,500 units is still a progress over the +45,300 increase in the year before. More than half of the 52,500 increase goes to plug-in hybrids (+27 k) and they increased their share by another %-point to 42%.

As far as the electric vehicle sales split by region, China remains the top dog, with a very rapid rate of growth being achieved throughout Quarter 1 2016. Year-on-year electric vehicle sales volume in the market more than doubled as compared to 2015.

Sales volume growth in the European region, in the US, in Japan, and elsewhere, was a fair bit lower — with a growth rate of 27%, 19%, 36%, and 0%, respectively.