Volkswagen e-Golf = #1 EV in Germany in July
Credit to Author: Jose Pontes| Date: Thu, 15 Aug 2019 23:10:55 +0000
Published on August 15th, 2019 | by Jose Pontes
August 15th, 2019 by Jose Pontes
The German plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) market continues on the right track in July, with 9,233 registrations. Fully electric vehicles (BEVs) were up 136% year over year (YoY), while plug-in electric vehicles (PHEVs) keep stuttering (+6% in July, bringing year-to-date numbers out of the red).
With all-electrics two thirds of plug-in registrations, and the PEV share 2.8% in July, BEVs alone hit 1.8%. That keeps the 2019 plug-in share at 2.6% (1.7% BEV).
The VW e-Golf last won the monthly best seller award in October 2018, but the veteran VW e-Golf managed to win last month’s trophy yet again, and with a record performance to boot. The e-Golf’s 1,007 registrations marked the first time the German EV scored a four-digit performance.
It seems Volkswagen’s current bread and butter plug-in model still has some aces up its sleeve…
Another German model hitting record results was the BMW i3, which scored 967 registrations, allowing it to grab the silver medal last month, ahead of its rival, the Renault Zoe, which moved 910 units. That Zoe’s 910 registrations is still an impressive performance for a model getting ready to receive significant changes. With the current one clocking regular 1,000/month performances, how high will the heavily revised Zoe go? 1,500? 2,000? Ladies and gents, please place your bets…
In 5th place, we have the Audi e-tron, which scored 530 registrations, its best result so far, surpassing its Q7 ICE sibling (319 units) and selling at the same pace as the other Audi mammoth SUV, the Q8 (582).
Will the Belgian-built Audi be able to reach the pace of the current sales leader, the BMW X5 (1,210 units last month)? One can only dream…
While the top positions didn’t have any changes, the leadership race became a little bit clearer, with the Renault Zoe winning precious ground over the Tesla Model 3. Assuming the generation change is done without major hiccups from Renault, the French hatchback is now the favorite to renew the 2018 model title, while the #3 BMW i3 still has a remote chance to take the leadership spot.
Off the podium we have the #4 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, with enough advantage over the ones behind it to start thinking about finding a place in the trophy room for the best selling PHEV and SUV statues.
The #8 Audi e-tron is just 6 units behind the #7 Smart Fortwo EV, and with its current momentum, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the German crossover reach #6 in a few months.
In the full-size category, the race is on between the #11 Mercedes E300e/de twins and the #10 BMW 530e, with the Mercedes reducing the Bimmer’s advantage to just 221 units, and this despite the BMW nameplate’s new record performance (432 units) — to which the rival responded with its second best result ever (464 units).
Interestingly, the performance from the 530e was just one out of the four record results made by German nameplates last month. (The others were the BMW i3, VW e-Golf, and Audi e-tron.) The empire strikes back?
In the lower positions of the ranking, the Jaguar I-PACE reached the top 20 (finally!), with the British sports CUV becoming the 13th BEV in the ranking, while the Porsche Panamera PHEV climbed one position, to #16.
Outside the top 20 ranking, we should highlight the Tesla Model X’s performance. Tesla had 78 deliveries of the X last month, its best first-month-of-quarter performance in a year, allowing it to reduce the distance to the top 20 to just 134 units. Meanwhile, the Mercedes EQC is still in launch mode, having registered 74 units last month.
In the brand ranking, BMW (20%, up 1%) is the leader, with Tesla (12%, down 1%) holding onto the 2nd spot and #3 Renault (11%, down 1%) hot on its tail.
Off the podium, we have Mitsubishi (9%) recovering ground on the medalists, while Volkswagen and Hyundai, both with 7% share, are still far away from the medal positions.
If you prefer seeing the sales charts with “Others” included (sales from all remaining models not in the top 20), here are those charts as well:
Jose Pontes Always interested in the auto industry, particularly in electric cars, Jose has been overviewing the sales evolution of plug-ins through the EV Sales blog since 2012, allowing him to gain an expert view on where EVs are right now and where they are headed in the future. The EV Sales blog has become a go-to source for people interested in electric car sales around the world. Extending that work and expertise, Jose is now a partner in EV-Volumes and works with the European Alternative Fuels Observatory on EV sales matters.