Thursday, January 7, 2021

Netherlands December 2020

 


 

VW ID.3 shines in record month (72% Share!)


December had an amazing 30,860 plugin registrations, a 34% increase over the previous all-time record, set at the same month of last year, which itself was beating a 4 year old record.

This amazing result translated into a Norway-like 72% PEV (69% BEV) share last month, pulling the 2020 plugin share to 25% (21% BEV), well above the 15% of 2019 and the 6% of 2018, and this share gains even another dimension when we realise that BEVs represented 82% of registrations in 2020, and 96%(!) in December alone.

Of course, the higher taxation of BEVs in 2021 is the major reason for this December peak, but after the upcoming sales hangover in Q1, something this market is used to, expect things to pick up again around Q2/Q3, ending 2021 with another great result, pulling the plugin share well above the 30% mark.


 

Looking at last month best sellers, and comparing it to the last December peak, we now witness a much more democratic ranking, if in December 2019 the Tesla Model 3 represented over half of the registrations, last month winner, the VW ID.3, had just 20% of all plugin deliveries, and while last year there were only 4 models hitting four-digit scores in December (Tesla Model 3, Audi e-Tron, Nissan Leaf and Renault Zoe), this time there were 7 models, this is another sign of a maturing market, where choice expands at a faster rate than the market itself, leading to lower shares of the leading models and an increased balance between the players in the market.

Looking at last month Best Sellers, we should disclose first that December registrations are not very representative of the market dynamics, having more to do with the OEMs capability to allocate units to this market, than anything else.

Still, we should notice that Volkswagen did its version of a Tesla high tide and not only won the Best Seller title in December, with the ID.3, but also pushed all the available ID.4 units to this market, allowing the new compact crossover to end the month in 4th, ahead of another model from the German conglomerate, as the Audi e-Tron ended the month in #5, thus making 3 VW Group models in the Top 5.

Another surprising performance was the Hyundai Kona EV ending in 2nd last month, registering a record 4,441 units, dropping the Tesla Model 3 to #3, so it seems Hyundai's EV production has finally found room to able to comply with demand peaks. 

Just outside the Top 5, there were two good news for Volvo, with the fresh XC40 EV reaching #6, with 1,765 units in only its 3rd month on the market, while in #7 we have the honorary Volvo Polestar 2, with the Sino-Swede scoring a record 1,468 deliveries.

Funny enough, and truly amazing, is the fact that last month, the Top 7 best selling models in the overall market were all BEV! How long will it take for the yearly ranking to look like this?

Other models showing strong results were the #9 Fiat 500e, with 486 deliveries in its full sales month, while the Peugeot 208 and 2008 siblings both scored record results in December, with the crossover scoring 458 deliveries, while its lower riding relative had 479.

One surprising result were the 383 registrations of the #14 Chinese Aiways U5, while the SEAT e-Mii EV (349 units) and Skoda Citigo EV (302) continue ramping up deliveries, and finally, the #19 Mini Cooper EV also scored a record result, proving that among City EVs, range is not as important as in other categories.

On the PHEV side, we almost didn't had any model to mention, as the Best Selling model was the recent Renault Captur PHEV (289 units, new record), in a low 20th place, this is explained by the makers focus on delivering BEVs before the year end, and also the fact that some OEMs, namely, Volvo, were already complying in December with the EU's CO2 rules, so they decided to keep them an extra month and deploy them in early 2021, so they can already win early points for the 2021 compliance.

Outside the Top 20, we should mention the never ending slow ramp up of the Mercedes EQC, with the midsize SUV delivering a record 239 units in December, so we could have here another contender for a Top 20 position in 2021.





Looking at the 2020 ranking, the up-to-November leader Kia Niro EV had a steep fall, going from First to Fourth in just one month, being surpassed by the VW ID.3, that took the 2021 Best Seller award, but also by the Tesla Model 3, that won the Silver medal, and even by Kia's cousin, the Hyundai Kona EV, that took the Bronze medal from its hands.

Oher models that climbed positions in December were the Audi e-Tron, that jumped 6 positions, up to the 5th spot, while the Polestar 2 jumped 5 positions, to #7, but the Climbers of the Month were the Volvo XC40 EV and the VW ID.4, that came out of nowhere (in the case of the German, literally), and joined the table on the Top 10, with the Volvo EV ending in #9 and the new VW EV in #10.

On the second half of the table, the Peugeot 208 EV was up three positions, to #15, while looking at the 2002 Top 20 we notice another interesting trend: There are only 2 plugin hybrid models on the table, both coming from the Volvo stable...

In the manufacturers ranking, Volkswagen (18%, up 4%) was the Best Selling maker, , followed  by Tesla (10%, up 1%) and Volvo (10%, down 1%).

43 comments:

  1. Wow 30.860 is a biiiig #. Thanks to VW for hitting the stride with both ID.3 & ID.4 and nice that Model 3 also sold near 4K units. Surprising that Hyundai has so many Kona EV for Netherlands, but only Kona for USA.

    Seems Europe will cross 200K mark this time and Global will cross 500K mark. What a wonderful month.

    In just 1st 3 days, Tesla shorts lost $4 billion in USA. With Tesla prices surging past $800 / share, shorts will soon lose their underpants also.

    Keep partying.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nothing surprising about Kona sales in the US... It's a compliance car, after all -- and unlike the new European mandate, the US has very weak requirements.

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  2. Top-19 goes to BEV (Dec). Top-7 and 18 out of Top-20 goes to BEV (2020). Strong message to plugin/full/mild hybrids. What happened to petrol/diesel.

    But how will the market transition when subsidies are cut and taxes are restored next year. Dutch always throws surprises.

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    1. Incentives are reduced *every* year in the Netherlands. No reason to expect growth to slow down this time around.

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  3. In USA, these are the %age share. Gasoline(Petrol) is the almighty here, but diesel is sneaking in and gaining share. Yes, in the land that discovered dirty diesel tricks, diesel is increasing. Who is offering more diesel. General Motors.
    Finally, a new green admin will take power 2 weeks from now. USA will start going green.

    2020
    Petrol: 91,6%
    Diesel: 3,3%
    Hybrid: 3,1%
    Plugin: 0,4%
    Electric: 1,6%

    2019
    Petrol: 92,8%
    Diesel: 2,9%
    Hybrid: 2,4%
    Plugin: 0,5%
    Electric: 1,4%

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Mach E and Ariya should cause a slight improvement this year... For the most part, everything will still be hinging on Tesla's production ramp, though.

      (Especially if the new administration succeeds in restoring full tax credit to all makers, which would give Tesla even more demand they will have to try filling in a timely fashion...)

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  4. See how notorious koreans dont allow Tesla to sell in their country.
    https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-south-korea-free-trade-agreement-incentive-program/

    They dont want American automaker to sell or they dont want electric vehicles to sell?
    They cannot play this same game with china/japan.

    Because of such liberal policies, trump came to power, if biden does not do anything to stop these discriminatory policies, then another trump will come to power next time.

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    Replies
    1. Wow, that's some serious thinly-veiled protectionism... Let's hope they don't get away with that.

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  5. Awesome results yet again!

    Yoy is interesting indeed - Tesla dropping from 47% market share to 10%, while VAG takes a quarter of the market in year 0 of their BEV push.

    I hope the Model Y arrives soon and we will see some price cuts on the Model 3 to prevent them becoming a single digit player in a market they once dominated

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    1. Model 3 likely won't see major price cuts until local production starts, which won't be before 2022.

      Model Y should help *a lot*, though...

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    2. With the ID.4 already at hand and selling hot in NL - so it seems - I hope that there will be price cuts not only for M3 but also for MY... If Tesla is interested in playing more than a tiny role in 2021 and 2022. Skoda Enyaq will be available very soon. Not to mention a certain ID.5 coming up

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    3. Tesla is interested in lowering prices in order to displace more combustion cars, not because of what mediocre EVs from other makers do...

      However, they only do so when their cost structure allows for that -- which likely won't happen for Model 3 in Europe until local production is up.

      (Though maybe they could somewhat lower prices before that, if they switch all imports to Chinese, which are likely cheaper than US imports?...)

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    4. Right, so how did their cost structure in Norway change prior to their cost cut there?

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    5. It didn't. Currency exchange rates changed.

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    6. That is also the reason for Germany and France price cut, right? Slightly before 2022, but hey - you were right for about 10 days!

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    7. Indeed, that is exactly the reason for the Germany and France price cut.

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  6. Fiat, Ford and Mercedes did not make it to the YTD table.
    BMW by a hair.
    Luckily 2021 has arrived.

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  7. Huge dive for Tesla in Netherlands!

    2020 Tesla sales: 8965 vehicles, of which 292 Model S, 299 Model X and 8374 Model 3
    2019 Tesla sales: 30942 vehicles, of which 527 Model S, 467 Model X and 29948 Model 3
    2018 Tesla sales: 8585 vehicles, of which 5622 Model S and 2963 Model X
    2017 Tesla sales: 3316 vehicles, of which 2077 Model S and 1239 Model X
    2016 Tesla sales: 2144 vehicles, of which 1723 Model S and 421 Model X
    2015 Tesla sales: 1874 Model S

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    1. Huge dive for any maker that didn't introduce new models facing their first incentives step-down...

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    2. True, but I think 2019 is the anomaly here. Late 2019, it was basically the only manufacuturer being able to deliver before the 1 Jan 2020 change in tax laws. For december 2020, VW joined, as did Polestar, Volvo, etc, so there was much more choice.

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    3. It's not about choice. It's about timing. The *first* time any new model faces an incentives step-down, it always experiences a much larger demand pull-forward than in subsequent years. That's what happened with the I-Pace in 2018; the Model 3 in 2019; and VW, Polestar, Volvo etc. in 2020...

      (And also Kona: while *technically*, it was available before, it didn't participate in the 2019 rush due to Hyundai's policy of intentionally delaying deliveries into 2020 -- so *effectively*, it was only facing it's first pre-step-down spike in 2020...)

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    4. Incentives in Netherlands are equal for all cars/brands, unlike the US. For commercial owners it is a percentage of the list value in your income taxes. For civilians it is a limited euro refund. No matter how long the brand exists. Also Tesla in Netherlands is the Chinese version now.

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    5. It's not about how long the brand exists. It's when the specific model in question has been introduced in the Netherlands. (Or started deliveries in sufficient volumes...) There is always a huge pull-forward of demand at the end of the first year, since all people interested in the model will want to buy it with the highest possible incentives. In subsequent years the effect is less pronounced, since most people who have been interested in that model already took the opportunity in the first year -- with only those who recently took an interest being left.

      There is no doubt about this. The numbers over the years for various models are very clear.

      Delete
  8. Sales from Germany were just released for December: 43.671 BEVs and 39.107 PHEV

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. France-20734 BEVs and 15168 PHEVs.Europe>250000?

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  9. *Almost* got a BEV-only top 20... So close! ;-)

    And a BEV-only top 10 was also not far off, with the late arrival XC40 BEV ending only a hair behind the PHEV variant; and the ID.4 also very close...

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  10. The Kona number is certainly impressive... We need to keep in mind though that this is effectively their first pre-incentive-step-down peak (like ID.3, ID.4, XC40, Polestar 2, Fiat 500, both Peugeots, Aiways U5...), since they didn't participate last year. (And it was not so much because of limited production, but rather the well-known fact that they intentionally delayed deliveries into 2020 in all markets...)

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  11. Curious that MG didn't make it into the list in December... While for the whole year, it even beat out the Zoe.

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    1. Allocation. In the last couple of months of 2020, MG was focused in delivering in its home market, that always peaks in December.

      Expect increased deliveries in Q1 2021.

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  12. I'm most surprised by the e-tron result. I guess it's because of the new variants facing their first incentives step-down.

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  13. @José I'm not sure how you arrive at the conclusion that the Mini's number proves range is not as important... Its result is decidedly mediocre (as expected), behind most other new models facing their first incentives step-down, and even behind some older models...

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    1. I would say that for an EV conversion of a 3-door hatchback, with a limited battery and "Premium" pricing, it is selling more than i expected.

      Trying to understand the reason for this success, i could only find one reason: Fun Factor.

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  14. #synopsis
    Of the 42829 vehicles registered in December (market up 2.9%), 30860 (72%) were PEVs.
    From the total registered 30860 PEVs, 27222 vehicles (62.6%) are BEVs in the Top20 positions.

    For the year, 67839 vehicles (75.9%) from the total registered 89362 PEVs capture the PEV Top20 positions, were the leading carmakers are VW group (32.5%) with 22072 units, followed by Kia-Hyundai (21%) with 14245 units and Volvo Car (14.6%) with 9915 units, while the best seller BEV was the Volkswagen ID.3 and the best seller PHEV the Volvo XC40.

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  15. Not so strict CO2 regulations even if Mercedes mets these conditions

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  16. In response to competition from MachE & ID.4, Tesla has launched standard version of Model Y @ $42.000 for 244 miles / 390 km. It shows how flexible Tesla is and also willing to sell more for the masses.
    Sadly MachE/ID.4 enjoys the $7.500 fed rebate, but Model Y does not. I hope the new US government reduces the subsidies so that everyone has fair playing ground. But they cannot re-introduce for Tesla since they are selling ship-load of vehicles here. Lets say Tesla is selling 200.000 vehicles / year. Even a subsidy of $1.000 will lead to $200 million / year. Instead 5.000 fast chargers (@ $40.000) could be installed for that amount every year.

    Can someone say what is the cost of a fast charger including facility to accept credit/debit card for payment.

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    1. LOL "competition"... Yeah right, the handful of other EVs is the reason why Tesla launched the entry-level Model Y. Nothing to do with competing with a hundred times as many combustion cars. Suuure...

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  17. PHEVs underestimate emissions standards.There is a lot of research on this topic.The EVs market has formed and there is no need to include here PHEVs(inclusion in tables PHEVs works how hidden advertising).Maybe someone thinks so too?

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  18. very informative post thank you

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  19. EV enthusiastJanuary 16, 2021

    Thanks a lot for the post @José!
    Could you also share the source(s) of the numbers?

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    1. EV enthusiastJanuary 17, 2021

      Thanks @Jose! I clicked/searched that but couldn't find it. Could there be a typo or something?

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    2. Could be. My Dutch is not bery good :P

      www.raivereniging.nl

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