Germany In August — Electric Vehicles Crushing It At Record 13.2% Market Share

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Germany, Europe’s largest auto market, saw a record 13.2% plugin electric vehicle market share in August 2020, up over 5× from the 2.6% result of August 2019. This comes immediately after July itself broke new ground at 11.4% market share. The overall auto market in August was down 20% from an unusually high August 2019.

Pure battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and plugin hybrids (PHEVs) contributed fairly evenly to August’s plugin result, with 6.4% and 6.8% of the market, respectively. The year-to-date division of labour is 4.3% BEV and 4.8% PHEV, giving a cumulative plugin market share of almost 9.2% so far in 2020, up from 3.0% in full year 2019.

The German transport authority, the KBA, has not yet released any detailed model data for August, but to get an idea of Germany’s typical favoured models, the year-to-date tally up to the end of July  (I repeat, July) was as follows:

The KBA does have an early release of gross monthly sales by major auto brands, so we know that Tesla as an overall brand had 2,846 sales in August, and can guesstimate (from recent trends) that around 85% of these (around ~2,430) were the Tesla Model 3.

We don’t yet know how many Renault Zoes or Volkswagen e-Golfs or e-Up! (or any other plugins) were delivered in August, but the above result has likely put the Model 3 in Germany’s top 3 bestsellers for the month, probably accompanied by the e-Golf and Zoe. Look out for Jose’s report in a couple of weeks for the full August model data.

VW e-Golf Press ImageVolkswagen e-Golf. Image Courtesy: Volkswagen

We know that the Volkswagen ID.3 is now being delivered to customers in Germany, and can expect it to gradually take over from the e-Golf as the main BEV for the brand. It should quickly climb into the top 3 monthly bestsellers.

Besides the ID.3, the Tesla Model 3 is right now presumably benefitting from its typical end of quarter push, and the Renault Zoe is likely still going strong. All in, September should be another record month for the German plugin electric vehicle market.

Year-to-date EV market share stands at 9.2%, a huge growth over the 3.0% of 2019. As available volumes of EV models increase over the last few months of the year, it now seems certain that Germany’s plugin market share will break through the 10% mark this year. What do you think? Please share your thoughts below.


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Dr. Maximilian Holland

Max is an anthropologist, social theorist and international political economist, trying to ask questions and encourage critical thinking. He has lived and worked in Europe and Asia, and is currently based in Barcelona. Find Max's book on social theory, follow Max on twitter @Dr_Maximilian and at MaximilianHolland.com, or contact him via LinkedIn.

Dr. Maximilian Holland has 416 posts and counting. See all posts by Dr. Maximilian Holland