Top Electric Models In 8 European Countries In February — 108 Models Ranked

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Someone especially focused on fully electric car sales in Europe has put together a site that tracks and shares fully electric vehicle (BEV) registration data from 9 European countries as it comes out. Running across the site recently, I decided to have some fun with the data by creating charts on specific stats or rankings that I thought were interesting.

In this article, I’m sharing the stats and rankings of the top selling models across 8 of these countries as well as the top BEV producers. Apparently, Germany takes a while to report its model-specific data (despite reporting some broad vehicle registration data early in the month), so I’ll update this report eventually once Germany reports its numbers. I initially thought I’d wait for Germany to publish its numbers, but then I realized this exercise would be even more interesting if I do it both with and without Germany’s data. We can see how things shift once those data come in.

The 8 countries whose data are aggregated for this analysis — in order of BEV market size — are Norway (BEV market size of 80,000 in 2020), the Netherlands (73,000), Sweden (28,000), Switzerland (20,000), Spain (18,000), Denmark (7,000), Finland (4,000), and Ireland (4,000). Once Germany’s data come in, it will be the largest single source of BEV sales data (194,000 BEV market in 2020).

In the future, I won’t include data for the full list, but I thought that would be fun to share this time.

I was surprised to see the Tesla Model 3 in #1, since its sales in Europe are still a trickle in the first two months of each quarter relative to the 3rd month of each quarter. However, the whole market was in a serious lull following the boom from the end-of-year rush, which was stimulated by a need to get EVs registered in order to not face EU fines.

But the LEAF being in #2 was an even bigger shocker. Most of us think of the LEAF as being a star of a previous generation but nothing to talk about or reference in 2021. Well, that’s just not the case. It is still seeing great sales thanks to its decade of sales experience and word of mouth, as well as its overall competitiveness in key regards (i.e., price). And it ended up #1 in the Netherlands last month.

Then there was the Audi e-tron, which is very popular in Norway; the Volkswagen ID.3, which has been “conserving energy” since the December sprint yet is still popular enough to place 4th; and the ever popular Kia Niro EV.

The next surprise (for me) came at #6 with the Polestar 2, which I have never considered to be very competitive despite a lot of enthusiasm for it. Well, it’s apparently compelling enough for buyers in these markets that it ranks 6th. It especially gets a lift from high sales on its home turf of Sweden, where it placed #2 in February, just slightly behind the Kia Niro EV.

The Peugeot e-2008 is doing quite alright despite not a lot of hype — mostly thanks to Norway, where it is #2 and benefits from being a size that is in high demand there, especially after years of very limited plugin vehicle options.

Then you get what I would consider a few more hype-competitive EVs: the #8 Volvo XC40, #9 Hyundai Kona EV (2019 CleanTechnica Car of the Year award winner), and #10 Renault ZOE (long the best selling EV in Europe).

I’ll just note one more model for a couple of reasons — the #11 Peugeot e-208. The e-208 shows even more consumer interest in Peugeot (hold that thought) than I expected, and after the e-208, there’s a pretty sharp drop in sales. It makes me ponder which other models might be able to break into the top 11 in coming months. We shall see. For now, though, let’s jump to the next topic. In addition to models, we’re also looking at which automakers had the most BEV sales in February in these 8 countries.

It’s interesting to see Peugeot (yes, Peugeot!) in the #1 spot here, but its e-2008 and e-208 are apparently quite popular. Both Tesla and Volkswagen will surely pass it up in March, though.

The rest of that ranking looks like what I’d expect. But Peugeot certainly did surprise me in the #1 spot. I wonder if it will be able to remain in the top 3 as the year progresses.

For more EV sales data and charts, see our full EV sales archives. For more just from Europe, see our Europe EV sales archives.

Do you have any more thoughts on these numbers? Do you have any major expectations for how these rankings will change as the stroll through 2021?


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Zachary Shahan

Zach is tryin' to help society help itself one word at a time. He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as its director, chief editor, and CEO. Zach is recognized globally as an electric vehicle, solar energy, and energy storage expert. He has presented about cleantech at conferences in India, the UAE, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, the USA, Canada, and Curaçao. Zach has long-term investments in Tesla [TSLA], NIO [NIO], Xpeng [XPEV], Ford [F], ChargePoint [CHPT], Amazon [AMZN], Piedmont Lithium [PLL], Lithium Americas [LAC], Albemarle Corporation [ALB], Nouveau Monde Graphite [NMGRF], Talon Metals [TLOFF], Arclight Clean Transition Corp [ACTC], and Starbucks [SBUX]. But he does not offer (explicitly or implicitly) investment advice of any sort.

Zachary Shahan has 7317 posts and counting. See all posts by Zachary Shahan