Tesla top plug-in as EV growth soars

Global plug-in vehicle deliveries reached 2.1 million units for 2018 – 64% higher than 2017, with Tesla’s Model 3 the top performer.

The figures include all BEV and PHEV passenger cars sales, light trucks in USA/Canada and light commercial vehicle in Europe and China, EV world sales database EV-volumes reports.

Their share in the global light vehicle market was as high as 3.8 % in December and 2.2 % for 2018 in total. About 69% of sales were all-electric (BEV) and 31% were plug-in hybrids (PHEV). All-electric vehicles have gained 3% share in the mix since 2017, driven by growth in China, the arrival of the Tesla Model 3, and losses for PHEVs in Europe – when the new fuel economy test procedure WLTP became effective in September, EV-volumes says.

“As expected and still impressive, the new Tesla became the world’s best-selling plug-in by a large margin, despite only selling in high volume during the second half and only in USA and Canada.

“All were high-spec, long range variants; the US$35,000 base car is still some months off. Even if growth for S and X was close to zero, Tesla had all their models in the top five.”

The top-10 stood for 30% of the global volume in 2018. At the end of last year, 220 EV models were sold worldwide, including 150 inside China, EV-volumes says.

“By far, the largest growth contributor was China, where sales increased by over 500,000 units to 1.2 million in 2018. China stood for 56% of all plug-in sales. Europe growth was more moderate at 34%, held back by tight inventories, long waiting lists for popular BEVs and the run-out of high-selling PHEVs.

“Plug-in sales in USA increased by 79% and the long-awaited Tesla Model 3 contributed with 138,000 units, most of them in the second half of 2018. Deliveries were limited to USA and Canada during the first year. It still became the best-selling EV of all categories in 2018 and even dominated luxury car sales in North America. Sales outside China, Europe and USA were 150,000 units (+39%), with Japan again in reverse, but other markets like Canada and South Korea growing much faster than average.”