The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a strict new auto pollution rule in April that will all but ensure that EVs make up as much as 60% of new cars sold in the US in just seven years – here’s how that could impact EV sales.
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Remember when Black Friday came right after Thanksgiving? Me neither, and it’s apparently a distant memory for the electric bicycle industry too. But the breakdown in calendar awareness at least means big savings for e-bike riders, as many e-bike brands have launched Early Black Friday deals in late October.
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The BMW Group had an incredibly successful 2021, with its BMW and Rolls-Royce brands posting record sales. The big news, however, is on the electric side, with sales of battery EVs from BMW and MINI more than doubling over 2020.
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Most reports about electric-vehicle adoption focus on sales. But Experian, the consumer credit reporting company, last week released its Q4-2019 report based on vehicle registrations. That gives us a view not only of the current market but total vehicles in operations. Experian zoomed into EVs, sharing numbers that reveal two things: Tesla dominates – and the shift to electric vehicles is only beginning.
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According to the European Automobile Manufacturers Association, alternative fuel vehicles (AFV’s) in the Europe Union are off to a very strong start in the first quarter of this year, increasing their numbers sold by 37.6% to 212,945 vehicles.
Hybrid vehicles (HEV) showed the biggest growth with 61.2% versus the same period last year, now counting 111,006 units. Electrically chargeable vehicles (ECV = BEV and plug-in hybrids) grew with 29.9% from 36,322 units sold in Q1, 2016 to 47,196 units in Q1, 2017. This includes 49% growth for “battery-only” (BEV’s) to 24,592 units sold and 13% growth for the plug-in hybrids (21,644 units). The U.S. market showed a similar growth of 49% for electric car sales to 40,700 units sold in the first quarter according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The American car market is about 16% larger.
We have been covering a lot of departures from Tesla’s executive team lately. Tesla’s Vice President of Regulatory Affairs and Deputy General Counsel, James Chen, left the automaker earlier this month. Chen left after two other VPs did the same just a few weeks before, VP of Finance and Worldwide Controller, Michael Zanoni, and Ricardo Reyes, Tesla’s VP of Global Communications.
But now we change the pace as we learn that Ardes Johnson, a long-time former GE sales executive and more recently SolarWorld’s Vice-President of Sales in the US, joined the automaker to lead the new sales team in its ‘Tesla Energy’ division.
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After a slow start in Germany for the past 3 years, Tesla is starting to make progress in this difficult market dominated by local manufacturers. Last year, Model S sales increased by 94% according to registration data, and although it still lags behind comparatively smaller countries like the Netherlands and Switzerland, things are looking up for Tesla in Germany.
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It’s rare for Tesla to disclose its sales per market, but it looks like they couldn’t resist the opportunity to highlight the Model S’ market performance in the U.S. during the earnings this week. The company confirmed 25,202 Model S sales in the U.S. in 2015, which gave the company a 25% market share, while every single other large luxury sedan has seen its sales decrease during the same period.
It gave me the idea to look into the midsize luxury segment in the US, which is the segment the upcoming Model 3 is expected to compete in, and see what it would look like if the vehicle was to do as well as the Model S did in the large luxury segment.
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Based on registration data, Tesla’s Model S sales were exactly flat in Norway last year versus 2014 – 4,039 units each year. The company’s overall sales in the country are likely to grow this year when it starts delivering the Model X later in the year, but in the meantime, it is interesting to see how Model S sales are doing in one of Tesla’s most important market and one of the rare market in which the company didn’t grow last year.
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Just a week after the first Tesla Powerwall for residential use in Australia has reportedly been installed in a Sydney suburb, we learn the company is launching a recruitment drive in Melbourne and Sydney to increase its ‘Tesla Energy’ team in the country.
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Nissan released today its January sales report for the U.S. and revealed that LEAF sales are down 29.4% versus the same period last year. Until late in 2015, the company had the excuse of the upcoming 2016 models, which were affecting sales negatively as potential buyers were waiting for the upgrade, but the new cars arrived at dealerships and December was still a very disappointing month for Nissan’s all-electric vehicle.
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It’s difficult to get accurate delivery numbers for Tesla in the US since the company doesn’t disclose sales by market, but in California, which is Tesla’s biggest market in the US by far, we can follow state rebates for clean vehicles in order to get a good idea of Tesla’s growth in the state.
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According to a new report from Nikkei, Tesla anticipates very little growth in mainland China in 2016. The news agency reports that during his current trip in Hong Kong, Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed that the company aims to deliver 5,000 cars this year after falling short on its 2015 delivery goal of 10,000 units in China.
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France is among the many European markets that greatly helped Tesla grow its fleet in 2015. The automaker delivered a total of 50,580 cars globally last year, which represents an overall 60% increase over 2014, while the company’s deliveries grew 115% in France in 2015.
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Switzerland continues to be an impressive market for Tesla where the company delivers just as many cars as in Germany, even though it’s a much smaller market than its neighboring country. According to registration data, Tesla delivered 1,556 Model S’s in Switzerland last year and 193 units in December alone.
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Tesla has a presence in Sweden since late 2013, but sales in the country have been lagging until mid-2015. Based on registration data, Tesla delivered only 268 Model S’s in Sweden in 2014, but last year the automaker delivered 996 cars, which represents a 271% increase.
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In December, the Tesla Model S not only outsold every other electric car in Denmark, but every single car model regardless of if they are gas-guzzling or battery-powered.
Tesla delivered 1,249 Model S’s in December in Denmark, easily beating the second best-selling vehicle; the Peugeot 208 with 903 vehicles sold during the month.
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Nissan released its December and 2015 sales reports for the U.S. and LEAF sales are down 42.8% in 2015 versus 2014. Until December, the company had the excuse of the upcoming 2016 models, which were affecting sales negatively, but the new cars arrived at dealerships last month and December was still a very disappointing month for Nissan’s all-electric vehicle.
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Tesla announced today via Instagram that the company now offers test drives out of Harrods, a popular upmarket department store in London. The company claims to be the first automotive manufacturer to offer test drives out of the store.
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After some confusion over Tesla registering thousands of Model S’s in Denmark in anticipation of a surge of electric vehicle sales over the phasing out of tax breaks in the country starting in 2016, the company confirmed having ordered 2,500 license plates in order for Tesla buyers to be able to complete their purchases by the end of the year.
With 113 Model S’s registered in October, the data didn’t reflect any demand increase due to the end of the tax breaks for electric vehicles, but the government published November registration data today and it now shows a significant increase in Tesla Model S registrations.
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Based on registration data, Tesla delivered 225 Model S’s in Norway last month – up from 198 units in October and 202 in November 2014. The company recently ran in some troubles in Norway after Model S owners expressed concerns over the way Tesla is reporting the power output of the car, especially the Dual Motor version. Tesla is now in mediation with over 150 Model S owners in the country over these concerns.
Dieselgate is starting to significantly impact Volkswagen’s sales in the US. The company published its November reports this week (see below) and the company suffered a 24.72% average decrease across all models.
The all-electric e-Golf is one of the rare model bringing the average up, but sales haven’t really increased since the scandal. They delivered 472 e-Golf units in November, up from 119 during the same period last, but it was the first month of availability in 2014. For a better comparison, VW delivered 596 e-Golfs in October.
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Today Nissan released its November US sales report, which reaffirmed decreasing LEAF sales, now down 60% over November 2014. The company delivered 1,054 LEAFs in the US in November versus 2,687 during the same period last year and 1,238 last month.
November brings the year-to-date total to 15,922 units, down from 27,098 during the same period in 2014.
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According to the registration data coming in for November in European markets, Tesla delivered 157 Model S’s last month in the Netherlands – up from 145 units in October. The Netherlands continue to be an important market for Tesla. It is the second biggest European market for the company with Norway being the first.
Year-to-date, the company delivered 1,613 cars in the country, which represents a 44% increase versus the same period last year.
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