Nissan Leaf Best Selling Electric Car in Europe
New Nissan Leaf model achieves best selling electric car with 296% growth in first full month of sales
The latest figures for European plug-in electric car registrations in March show the newly launched mark 2 Nissan Leaf achieving over 6,000 registrations. Figures from the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (www.acea.be) also show a record number of electric vehicle registrations of over 40,000. This represents a 41% growth yoy for March sales. Market share for EVs reached 2.2% in March (2% YTD) as the sector continues to grow.
Fully electric cars grew an amazing 44% yoy and now represent 52% of the plug-in electric car market. 100% electric cars grew faster than PHEVs (at 38%) and should overtake PHEVs as the dominant European plug in electric vehicle in April. Amazingly, 6 out of the top 7 plug-in cars registered were 100% electric with only the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV making the top 7.
The previous best selling electric car, the Renault Zoe sold 4,248 units, up 74% from February. That makes it a slam dunk for the Nissan/Renault group at over 10,000 vehicles sold. This represents 25% of the total plug in market and 50% of all 100% electric cars sold. A combination of the new model Nissan Leaf and Renault upping their deliveries making the difference.
The Tesla Model S claims the honours for the biggest growth month on month with 365% with 2,791 cars registered. This is the best month on month growth for 27 months. The Tesla Model X also forced itself back into the top 20 with 1,758 units sold. Clearly there is plenty of demand for Tesla even though it has the highest price points for 100% electric cars in the market.
Other well performing cars in this record month include the BMW i3 (2,300), Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV (2,514) and VW e-Golf (1,685).
We look forward to the April figures to see if the growth is sustained and hopefully improved upon.
