The German plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) market started the year on fire, jumping 128% year over year (YoY), to a record 16,131 registrations. That smashed the previous record (12,026 units) set last October, so it seems the German locomotive has (finally) been set in motion.
Now, 2020 has rolled around and a bunch more automakers have decided to ditch monthly sales reporting. Nissan (& Infiniti), Jaguar Land Rover, and Volkswagen (including Audi, Porsche, etc.) announced the change with press releases. Others didn’t seem to announce it but just stopped publishing the monthly numbers (Mercedes, BMW, and Toyota).
The French plug-in passenger electric vehicle market broke all of its previous records in January, with all-electric models jumping 258% to 10,952 units and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles surging 238% to 3,813 registrations.
With a sales rush in the last days of 2019, one would imagine January would bring a big hangover for the plug-in vehicle market. But turns out, it hasn’t. Yes, the Dutch plug-in market was down 2% year over year (YoY), to 3,184 registrations, but because the overall market fell even more (-6% YoY), the plug-in vehicle (PEV) share (7.2%, 4.3% for fully electric vehicles alone) actually grew compared to 12 months ago (6.9% in January 2019). So … why is this happening?
Top U.S. electric vehicle sales of 2019 and 2018 reflect several different things and could show a glimpse into what 2020 looks like for some of these automakers.
The title “Nissan Beats Tesla To The Post?” definitely needs the question mark in it, as, with autonomous driving, there are too many unknowns to make any definite comparisons.
The Tesla Model 3 is the Usain Bolt of the electric vehicle market. It is far and away the most popular electric vehicle in the world. In fact, it had nearly 3× as many sales last year as the 2nd best selling electric vehicle (EV), and it accounted for ~4× as many sales as the 3rd best selling EV, the Nissan LEAF.
Hyundai has increased the size of the battery in the Ioniq to give the car 46 more miles of range for a modest increase in price. The Nissan LEAF now comes with Safety Shield 360 standard on all models.
The European plug-in electric vehicle market registered a record 77,000 vehicles in December (+88%!), with the Dutch market most helping to pull the market up. Fully electric vehicles (+91% year over year) grew a bit faster than plug-in hybrids (+81%), with the powertrain breakdown becoming even more friendly to fully electric vehicles (68% to 32% in December, versus 64% to 36% in 2019).
Experiments in Ohio and Hamburg are designed to determine whether repurposing EV batteries for energy storage is technically and commercially viable.
