Porsche is rewarding its loyal South African fans by bringing the all-electric Taycan. It will be available in three variants, namely the Taycan 4s, the Taycan Turbo, and the Taycan Turbo S.
While the German overall market is still recovering from the pandemic, dropping just 32% year over year (YoY) in June, the local plugin vehicle market is in much better shape, having registered almost 19,000 units, up 124% YoY.
On Wednesday, July 15, 2020, in Yokohama, Japan, the first big EV news from Nissan in about 10 years was shared with the world. Am I over the top with this statement? Probably, but I have forgotten how many years we have waited for this companion to the Nissan Leaf.
The BMW iX3 shares the same platform as the plug-in hybrid, the mild hybrid, and the fossil fuel X3 models. The iX3 will be built at the BMW/Brilliance Automotive joint venture plant in China where BMW has been producing the X3. BMW also produces the X3 in Rosslyn, Pretoria, South Africa. Since they share the same platform, we hope in the long run BMW can start to also build the iX3 in Pretoria.
Early this morning in Munich, BMW Chairman Oliver Zipse presented an update on the BMW iX3 full electric SUV due out later this year.
Sweden remains an odd plug-in vehicle market in which plug-in hybrids heavily outweigh full electrics. Part of that may be because Volvo Cars only sells plug-in hybrids so far, and Volvo is sort of popular in Sweden.
Norway continues to be a shining star in the electric vehicle world. In the first half of the year, 48% of automobiles sold in the country were fully electric, a global record for EV market share. Plug-in vehicles represented 69% of auto sales, another global record.
Tesla Model 3 Keeps #1 Position, while Plugin Vehicle Market Share Hits 16% in June
BMW rolled out a press release a few days ago with this title/headline: “BMW Group steps up electromobility: E-drives for half a million electrified vehicles.” I was intrigued, but I can’t say I was optimistic.
After a Covid-derived drop in April (-16% year over year), the European passenger plug-in vehicle market went back to black in May, having scored 46,800 registrations (+23%), a great performance considering the overall market is still recovering (-57% in May).
