It’s time for another monthly checkup on US auto sales. Surprisingly, more than a million people are still buying the 21st century equivalent of horses every month. I think the most interesting takeaway, though, is quickly running through the companies and car divisions that saw their sales drop last month (compared to the same month in 2018) and then the companies and car divisions that saw their sales rise.
This is the story of a 1200 mile journey taken in what’s basically the wrong car for the job. I decided to test the 2018 LEAF to the limits, in several different ways. Rapid charging repeatedly, going up one of the steepest interstate highway climbs in the US, some off-highway driving, and long journeys into places with no charging stations were just a few of the things I decided to take on. I thought that after more than a year with the car and almost 50,000 miles on the odometer I knew what the LEAF was made of, but it turned out that I still had more to learn.
Where did we leave off? Yes, it was that memorable night walk in the streets of Venice with Uncle Google. The plan was simple – charge up where you can and wander around sightseeing the north of Italy while heading towards Rome. Things never seem to go as planned, so right after we left — somewhere near Ravenna — one of the motorbikes in our team broke. It simply refused to go any further.
Yes, you are right. This is exactly the time of year when a well-known Polish EV pioneer (a real one, unlike the many who are simply followers) takes to the roads of Europe to test e-mobility in real life.
If the number of used cars as a ratio of sold cars is a credible measure of consumer demand, it’s clear that the Tesla Model 3 is beating its competitors.
Yes, it’s technically possible to stuff over 100 kWh of batteries in an older LEAF, but for most customers, Fenix Power will be providing new cooled and monitored batteries of 24–40 kWh to replace their aging and degraded factory packs much more affordably than Nissan does.
After a great start of the year, the German plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) market continued on the right track in March, up 42% year over year (YoY) to 9,677 registrations. Fully electric vehicles (BEVs) grew at a fast pace (+75% YoY), while plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) remained flat (+1%).
While people have been charging at Electrify America sites for months in the eastern portions of the US, the Southwest deserts have been among the last places to get a station. I recently had my first chance to use one in Deming, New Mexico. I was very impressed with the station, but there’s definitely room for improvement when it comes to paying for a charge.
The Swiss plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) market smashed its previous sales record (1,341 registrations) last month by registering 2,162 vehicles. That meant that the PEV share jumped to 7.5% (6.4% from fully electric vehicles and 1.1% from plug-in hybrids), pulling the 2019 PEV share to 5.3% and thus almost doubling last year’s result.
Last month, fully electric vehicles saw their registrations double year over year (YoY), pushing the overall market up +28% despite sales of every other powertrain type dropping at least 20%, which led to record fully electric vehicle (58%) and overall plug-in vehicle (69%) shares. As you already know, Tesla Model 3 deliveries went through the roof in March, with the model achieving 5,315 registrations, a new all-time record for any nameplate in Norway, whatever the fuel source.
