With 11.000 units sold last December, some would say that the European EV market was down 40% regarding the same month last year and that would be due to lower gas prices and this would be the sign of a struggling 2015 for plug-ins in Europe.
Yes, numbers can be played that way, but remember that at the time, sales highly were inflated by the Dutch year end rush, if we take that abnormal number (14.197) off, last months result is actually the best EVER in Europe, contributing for a yearly sales jump of 49%, ending at just a smidge over 100K units (100.060, to be more exact, which could be even a bit higher as some markets don't break sales by fuel source). Not bad for a struggling niche, eh?
Looking at the monthly models ranking, the Renault Zoe delivered an astonishing result (2.538 units), performing a new Personal Best and a Year Best for a single model, while at the same time reaching #1 for the first time since June '13.
Tesla also impressed, with 1.477 units, its best result since March, while in #6 we have another Renault, the workhorse Kangoo ZE had its best month since September '13, selling 582 units, underlining a perfect month for the french brand.
On the YTD ranking, the Model S is up one position to #4, relegating the BMW i3 to #5 (And to think that the german hot-hatch was still #3 last October...), but we have to move to the second half of the ranking to see more last minute changes, with the Audi A3 e-Tron rising two positions to #19, while the Kia Soul EV climbed to #23.
Breaking the ranking by segments, PHEV's were totally dominated by the Outlander PHEV (The #2 Plug-in Hybrid was the Volvo V60 Plug-In, only #7 in the ranking!), while the Leaf collected the BEV trophy, the Rock-Steady (7 consecutive months on the 300/400 area) VW e-Up! won the A-Segment, the Zoe was revived just in time to recover the B-Segment title, the Leaf was the best selling C-car, while in the LCV's, the Renault Kangoo ZE revalidated the title, but the Nissan e-NV200 has been giving a fight lately, so we can see interesting developments here in the near future.
Looking on the Manufacturers ranking, Mitsubishi won the Best-Seller Trophy, relegating the previous leader, Renault, for #2, while Nissan ended in #3, only 300 units behind its Alliance sister.
Looking into 2015, i would see a slower growth rate, with total sales reaching probably the 120-something-thousands, while in the models ranking, the top positions will continue without major surprises, with Top Five models continuing their close run, with the Golf GTE possibly surprising the current status-quo at some point.
