Sales of fully electric vehicles in Germany grew by 43.9% in 2018 to 36,062, according to official figures released by the German Federal Motor Transport Authority (Kraftfahrt Bundesamt). This was more than 1% of total new passenger car sales.
The top stories of the past week here on CleanTechnica again showed abundant reader love for Tesla stories. 8 of the stories in the top 10 were about Tesla. The other two were about electric vehicle sales in Europe (which included sales of Teslas, of course) and 4 new long-range electric cars coming to the US in 2019.
In 2018, 24,024 fully electric vehicles were sold in the Netherlands, three times as many as in 2017, according to figures from industry associations RAI and BOVAG and data specialist RDC. Of all new cars registered in 2018, 5.4% of them were plug-in vehicles (does not include conventional hybrids).
To start, let me just put this out there: I’m not claiming Honda’s car sales are collapsing solely because of the Model 3, even though Tesla Model 3 sales totaled ~140,000 in the US in 2018 and two of the top models buyers were coming from were the Honda Accord and Honda Civic. There has to be more to it than that. Right?
In honor of another wicked cool quarter, here’s a view of Tesla history that you might have missed if you only read CleanTechnica.
The electric car story of the year — nay, the car story of the year — was the Tesla Model 3 taking the industry by storm. Just as we were predicting 3 or 4 years ago, Tesla’s ability to ramp up production of a more affordable, more mass market model is sending chills down other automakers’ spines — or it should be. I’ll revise a famous old quote to explain the ongoing story in a different way:
The big electric vehicles sales stories these days are generally about the Tesla Model 3 walloping the competition. Nonetheless, we like to go back to our roots and explore overall electric vehicle growth at least once a quarter. The problem is that almost all of the positivity comes from Tesla.
In the month of December, Tesla sold more luxury cars than all other automakers. In fact, it accounted for approximately 30% of luxury car sales. Tesla sold more luxury sedans than BMW and Audi combined, more than Mercedes-Benz and Lexus combined. It absolutely crushed the luxury car competition.
The Tesla Model 3, adored by millions of Tesla fans from day one (March 31, 2016), was a lighting bolt in the US car market in 2018. The Model 3 has shown why any remaining Tesla critics should really stop doubting the 21st century car company out of Silicon Valley.
Overall, the Tesla Model 3 was the #4 top selling car in the USA in December and in the 4th quarter.
The Tesla Model 3 was the only car from an American car company that was in the top 5 in both rankings, which also means it was the top selling car in the US from a US car company.
