As ruin and gloom continue in the overall European car market, with a 21% drop last month and the lowest April in more than 30 years (not counting April 2020 hit by Covid), the European passenger car market has also started to be hit. It fell 1% last month, with approximately 159,000 plugin vehicles registered in April. Add-on hybrids (-14% year-on-year) were the ones to blame for the add-ons sinking into the red, while BEVs rose 15% in April.
Last month, the share of plugin vehicles in the total European car market was 19% (10% full electric / BEV), keeping the share of plugin vehicles (PEV) for 2022 at 21% (12% only for BEV).
The highlight of the month is Stellantis ’first # 1 and # 2 wins. The Fiat 500e won its first bestseller title, 1,800 units ahead of second-placed Peugeot e-208, while the Czech Škoda Enyaq finished the podium.
Looking closer at the 5 best supplements for April:
# 1 Fiat 500e – The little Italian won his first monthly bestseller title, with a strong one 5,593 th most common deliveries in March. With wrinkles emerging in the competition (VW e-Up, Smart Fortwo EV, Renault Twingo EV) and Dacia Spring more attractive for a more price-sensitive customer base, the small Fiat EV benefits from a lack of serious competition, at least until the upcoming wave of Chinese city EVs and reaches European shores. This makes it the default choice of EV ucbunch (ish) & chic category of city cars. With the Mini Cooper EV a premium proposition, the Smart is getting bigger in the next generation of city EVs to fight the MINI, and the fossil-powered Fiat 500 is ending its career next year, expect the Fiat EV to remain a reference for excel in the category. Last month, the main markets were Germany (1,827 units), France (1,737 units) and the United Kingdom (480), while Fiat EV had fur month in his native Italy (494 units).
# 2 Peugeot e-208 EV – After a somewhat longer absence, the French EV reappeared among the top 5 in April, with 3,775 th most common registrations, allowing him to win silver and giving Stellantis his first gold + silver victory in Europe. With Renault Zoe’s biggest rival so far looking tired, the sleek Peugeot wants to become a reference to the new category. Will he be able to pull it off? Going back to the April performances, Peugeot’s electric vehicle star had the best result in its native France (1,375 units), but also recorded results in Germany (672 units), the UK (610 units) and the Netherlands (324).
# 3 Skoda Enyaq – The Czech crossover was on the 3rd in April, with 3,721 th most common registrations, exceeding expectations (and other Volkswagen Group models). Will the Škoda crossover remain among the best-selling in the next few months? It is too early to tell. With production restrictions left and right (lack of chips, discontinuation of suppliers in Ukraine, restrictions on battery supply…), the next few months will be challenging, but Skoda is known for insufficient promises and oversupply, so it would not be surprising that the Czech becomes the best seller electric car of the Volkswagen Group in Europe. Going back to the performance in April, the family-friendly Škoda crossover had the best result in Germany (1,030 units) and is also a success story in the Dutch market (869 units). The Škoda EV is also proving popular in Scandinavia. It received 485 registrations in Norway and 259 in Sweden.
# 4 Kia Niro EV – Korean high wagon The crossover continues to be a sure value in the EV arena. He does not stand out in any way, but there are no weak points, which contributes to his continued success even when his successor is on the road. It was April 3,513 th most common registration, making it Hyundai-Kia’s best-selling model last month. In terms of performance last month, the main market for the Niro EV is Sweden (670 registrations), followed by the United Kingdom (620 registrations), Germany (544) and France (516 units). It is a fairly balanced distribution between several markets.
# 5 Dacia Spring – The small Sino-Romanian crossover reappeared in the top 5 last month, with 3,461 th most common registration, Given the blockades related to Covid in China that are hampering local production, the next few months will be a turning point for Dacia EV. Will his deliveries dry up, or will he remain undamaged, gathering another top 5 attendees? Back to deliveries in April, ordinary Jane EV had the best result in France (1,568 registrations), followed by its domestic market – 506 registrations in Romania – while the most important German market (499 registrations) also had significant volume, just as in city car friendly Italy (372).
Looking at the rest of the April table, there was a close race in the PHEV category, with the # 6 Ford Kuga PHEV narrowly winning the monthly title over the surprising # 7 Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross PHEV. The Japanese model not only broke its own record, but also secured the best Mitsubishi result in Europe in more than two years. The compact crossover is still far from the 8,000+ units of the best moments of the Outlander PHEV, but the SUV successor wants to bring Mitsubishi back from the brink, and the Japanese carmaker really needs a success story if it wants to stay in Europe. Eclipse Cross PHEV could be Mitsu’s last chance to stay here …
In the second half of the table, SAIC’s MG eHS crossover continued to shine, giving it 11th place, while the Audi e-tron recorded another presence among the top 20.
Below the top 20, the big news is the landing of the Mercedes EQE. With 625 units, it already surpasses its bigger brother the Mercedes EQS (609 units). The German carmaker is counting on its new, more modern EV to remain the leader in the category after the EV transition. With the Audi e-tron currently in front squirrel with vision problems BMW iX, EQE wants to increase production for the rest of the year so that next year it will be able to beat the e-throne in the European full-size category. (The global title will be a completely different story, considering that Chinese bestsellers are already circulating over 100,000 copies a year …)
Elsewhere, a few more models deserve a mention. Highlighting the positive month for Stellantis, the multinational conglomerate ranked 5 models from 4 different brands in the top 20. The Citroen e-C4 EV achieved a record 1,992 registrations. Maybe we’ll see the French hatchback-disguised-as-a-crossover soon on the table. The postmodern Lynk & Co 01 PHEV also announced a record month, with 2,137 deliveries, with the Chinese crossover wanting to replicate the success of MG eHS in Europe. Of course, it would help if the L&K model was present in a wider number of markets across Europe …
Looking at the ranking list for 2022, the above positions remained the same. Two Tesla on the mass market were stable in leading positions, while the Fiat 500e gained a valuable advantage in the race for the best-selling non-Tesla. We could see the little Italian ending the year as a bronze medal winner!
The first change of position occurred in # 6, with the Ford Kuga PHEV overtaking the Peugeot 3008 PHEV in the lead in the plug-in hybrid category. Ford’s model is in a good position to renew its PHEV title for 2021.
In second place, the two climbers of the month were the Peugeot e-208 EV and the Škoda Enyaq. Thanks to a strong April, everyone jumped 5 positionswith the French EV rising to 10th and the Czech to 11th.
Also worth reference is that the Kia EV6 will climb one position, to # 17, and expect the Korean EV to climb a few more positions in the coming months.
As another measure of the disruption that is currently happening, we can see that the traditional leaders of the category in the overall market (A segment – Fiat 500; B segment – Renault Clio; C segment – VW Golf; D segment – BMW 3 Series; E segment – Mercedes E-Class), it seems that only the first to survive the transition of EV as a leader in the category. In the category just above, Renault Clia’s EV brother, Zoe, now looks tired and can’t hold on to No. 1 in the category. Both the Hyundai Kona EV and the Peugeot e-208 look like safer bets for this year’s title. Renault has high hopes for the future Renault 5, which should land in 2024, but I am afraid that the new retro-tastic The EV will be too niche to win the best-selling title in the category.
In the compact vehicle category, the VW ID.3, the spiritual successor to the VW Golf, proved to be a failure, with the German EV now at # 19. Expect this year’s title to go to VW ID.4, a model said to have a strong second half. In this case, the trophy should remain within the Volkswagen family, but in the hands of the ID.3 brother of the crossover, which is also a sign of the present time – more and more people prefer crossovers over ordinary hatchbacks.
In the medium-sized category, hell broke loose. Not only that Bimmer only 4th, behind both Tesla and Hyundai Ioniq 5, but in the overall market, the Tesla Model 3 outperforms the BMW 3 Series, including fossil fuel units! And given that the Kia EV6 and Polestar 2 regularly outperform it, it wouldn’t be surprising if the mid-size BMW fell even further. As the BMW i4 fails to rise to significant levels, BMW will have difficulty regaining what was once its bread and butter market. Some would even say that BMW f… – I mean, in trouble.
Finally, in the full size category, a lot depends on the career of the Mercedes EQE. For now, the Audi e-tron holds the trophy, but the question remains how quickly Mercedes will increase EQE and how much the big Audi will resist future attacks by the new Mercedes EV.
On the ranking list of car manufacturers, with Tesla (8.4%) in off-hours mode, BMW (9.4%, up 0.3%) returned to first place. Mercedes (8.9%) followed suit, leaving Tesla in 3rd place by the end of April.
In 4th place we now have Kia (6.4%, growth of 0.4 percentage points), which overtook Volvo, now in 5th place, with a 6% share.
Given that Peugeot, Volkswagen and Audi have 5.8% each, the race for the 5th position will be quite interesting. This is a very balanced EV market, as evidenced by the fact that the leading BMW has less than 10% share, as well as the fact that no brand has managed to place more than two models in the April 20 best. Quite different from the Chinese electric vehicle market.
Sorting things by car groupThe Volkswagen Group leads with a 17.4% share, which is a decrease of 0.1 points. Stellantis, which topped the Volkswagen Group in April, is second (15.3%, 0.6 points growth). The second-placed conglomerate wins the leader over the invasion of Ukraine, which particularly hit the Volkswagen Group because it relied on Ukrainian belt suppliers. The Stellantis came mainly from Morocco. Over the next few months, the gap between the two could become even smaller.
The current bronze medal winner, Hyundai-Kia (11.8%, an increase of half a percentage point) gained an advantage over the # 4 BMW Group (11.3%, a growth of 0.2). In 5th place, we now have the Mercedes-Benz Group (10.1%), which has benefited from Tesla’s “holiday month”.
Given that the United States has been Tesla’s field for years, and BYD is strengthening its grip on the Chinese market, hypothetically 3. Giant OEM from the EV era, the Volkswagen Group sees its power in the European market weaken. In order to remain at the same level as the other two, the German conglomerate needs to recover in its domestic market (Europe). Will it be able to? Hmmm…
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