The European passenger plug-in car market hit unprecedented levels last month, beating a two-year old record (34,000 units in December 2015) by scoring over 40,000 registrations. That’s 41% growth compared to the same period last year, and pulls the year-to-date count to 87,000 deliveries (37% growth). It allowed the 2018 market share to date to reach 2% (2.2% in March).
Electric vehicle fever has definitely caught on in Germany, with March coming in as a record month to echo France’s record month. Germany had over 6,700 electric car registrations last month, a 52% increase year over year (YoY). The plug-in vehicle share of the overall car market was 2%.
The European passenger plug-in market scored over 22,000 registrations in February 2018, growing 39% compared to the same period last year (YoY) and pulling the year-to-date count to almost 47,000, a 35% increase over the same period in 2017. The plug-in vehicle market now holds a 1.9% market share in Europe. Unfortunately, plug-in hybrids (+54% YoY) continue to outrun fully electric vehicles (+26%), thus increasing by two percentage points their lead over fully electric cars (55% vs 45%).
The European passenger plug-in car market started the 2018 season with almost 26,000 registrations, growing 36% compared to the same period last year, a promising start that unfortunately is being made for the most part thanks to growth in plug-in hybrids (+44% year over year). In fact, plug-in hybrids now represent more than half (53%) of deliveries.
The European passenger plug-in market ended the 2017 season with a near record performance, growing 11% compared to the same period last year by registering some 33,700 units, just a whisker below the all-time record of December 2015 (33,827) — which, let’s not forget, was inflated by fiscal changes that happened in the Netherlands, Sweden, and Denmark in January 2016.
I love doing the US electric car sales report at the end of each quarter. With Tesla’s quarterly figures published, Tesla registration data from Europe and China mostly logged, my estimates for the first two months of the quarter, and a little more estimating (Australia, UAE, etc.), I’m able to check out the remainder I have left for Tesla sales in the last month of the quarter. As has happened nearly every time before, the figure that resulted for US sales in that third month of the quarter actually looked logical, so I left all previous months as initially projected.
I compared Tesla Model 3 specs to the specs of its top gasoline-powered competitors a few weeks ago, but I didn’t provide comprehensive sales data at that time and several people requested such information. I was curious as well, so I dug it up and turned it into a couple of charts (below). Rather than just set you free with the data here, I thought I’d have a little fun here. Below is my take on why someone would buy each of these gasoline-chugging models in 2017 or 2018.
Now that we have several official specs for the Tesla Model 3, I wanted to do a thorough update of how the Model 3 competes against comparably priced offerings from BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Lexus, Toyota, Acura, and Jaguar. Last week, I commented at length about subjective features of the Model 3 that I think will make it a much more attractive offer for drivers and passengers — openness, torque, serenity, and 21st century controls. I honestly think these are the core factors (along with the convenience of home charging) that will lead to the Model 3 dominating its market segment. However, I know many people just want to see the numbers and I am sometimes in search of specific numbers for various comparisons, so this article is primarily aimed at providing several key specs across a few variations of the Model 3, the Tesla Model S, and 22 gas-powered competitors.
BMW, Audi, and Mercedes should be prepped for this, since they’ve already been walloped in the large luxury sedan class. Nonetheless, what’s coming is like nothing they could truly prep for. These automakers have been trading wins with each other in various monthly and annual races, but Usain Bolt just came to town and is soon joining the track days.
The Model 3 is placed at the bottom of the premium sedan market. Of course, being a unique vehicle in a heavily undersupplied niche market, it competes with models well beyond the small premium sedan market, so definitely don’t consider this to be anything close to a comprehensive global competition summary — the Model 3 will be attracting people who would have otherwise bought a Toyota Camry, Toyota Corolla, Honda Civic, Ford Mustang, Nissan LEAF, and BMW Z3 (me 20 years ago). But I think this is a decent list of gasmobiles (gasoline-powered cars) whose sales will be remarkably body slammed by the Model 3.
