10.7% of cars and SUVs sold in Spain in March 2022 were plug-in electric, according to the trade association ANFAC.
Tesla Model 3, the best-selling plug-in passenger vehicle in Spain in March. Photo not taken in Spain. Photo: Noah Wulf
BEVs (all-electrics) were 5.2% (3090 units). PHEVs were 5.5% (3307 units).
It has been over a year since the last time I wrote about Spain — describing December 2020, a good month for plug-in vehicle sales all over Europe; in Spain it brought a BEV share of roughly 4% and a PHEV share of roughly 6%.
But for 2021 (the entire year), these figures were at 2.8% (BEVs) and 5.0% (PHEVs). Especially in the case of BEVs, Spain was lagging behind the rest of Europe.
This year, BEVs are doing better — in March 2022 their market share passed the 5% mark for the first time. But March was of course an end-of-quarter month, a typical “Tesla month” with large shipments of the Model 3 and Model Y arriving.
Top 5 in March 2022 (BEVs):
1. Tesla Model 3 (792 units)
2. Kia Niro EV (316 units)
3. Tesla Model Y (152 units)
4. Fiat 500e (148 units)
5. Kia EV6 (140 units
What is missing here? Well, the Volkswagen Group, obviously. You would need to scroll further down the list of best-selling BEV models to find the Volkswagen ID.4. And considerably further down the list to find the ID.3 (or its Spanish-branded but not Spanish-built twin, the Cupra Born).
In Germany, the wait time for these models is roughly one year, so I assume the problem is on the supply side.
The Renault Zoe and the Hyundai Kona Electric, once quite popular, did not make the top 5 (of BEVs) in March.
The locally made Citroen e-C4 is not far behind the top 5 for BEVs (it occupies one of the closely contested spots numbered #6 through #8 on the list). About 95 units were registered last month.
Stellantis makes at least three all-electric vehicles in Spain, mostly for export: besides the e-C4, this includes the Opel Corsa-e and the Peugeot e-2008; and there are reports that the production of the smaller Peugeot e-208 is also going to be moved to Spain.
Citroen e-C4
Top 5 in March 2022 (PHEVs):
1. Mercedes GLC PHEV (228 units)
2. Peugeot 3008 PHEV (220 units)
3. Mercedes A-Class PHEV (193 units)
4. Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross PHEV (151 units)
5. Jeep Compass PHEV (135 units
The popularity of the Hyundai Tucson in Spain — it was the best-selling car/SUV in March regardless of the powertrain — apparently does not extend to the plug-in hybrid variant, which did not even make the top 5 of PHEVs.
And a note about the general state of the Spanish new car market: in the first three months of 2022, or Q1 2022, the market (164,000 units) is down compared the the same period of 2021 (186,000 units) which was down compared to the same period of 2020 (219,000 units) which was down compared to the same period of 2019 (317,000 units).
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Sources: ANFAC, eu-evs.com, Faconauto.com
Almost one in three cars sold in Sweden in March 2022 was all-electric.
Tesla Model Y. Photo not taken in Sweden. Photo: Gold Pony
32% of new cars sold were all-electric (BEVs) and 24% of them were plug-in hybrids (PHEVs), which brought the market share of plug-in cars to 56%.
Tesla traditionally delivers more vehicles at the end of each quarter (in March, June, September and December) than in other months. In March 2022, it propelled the Model Y to the first place among plug-ins in Sweden.
1363 units of the Model Y were registered last month. The Volkswagen Group’s trio of electric SUVs — the Volkswagen ID.4, the Audi Q4 e-tron and the Skoda Enyaq — achieved a similar result, but only if you add the numbers for these three models together.
The Model Y also took the #2 place among passenger vehicles overall (regardless of the powertrain). The best-selling passenger vehicle overall was the Volvo XC40, thanks to strong sales of both its plug-in and non-plug-in variants.
Volvo XC40 BEV. Photo not taken in Sweden. Photo: Alexander Migl
Top 10 in March 2022 (BEVs):
1. Tesla Model Y (1363 units)
2. Tesla Model 3 (990 units)
3. Volkswagen ID.4 (906 units)
4. Kia Niro EV (773 units)
5. Volvo XC40 BEV (596 units)
6. Polestar 2 (505 units)
7. Nissan Leaf (402 units)
8. BMW i3 (373 units)
9. Audi Q4 e-tron (328 units)
10. Kia EV6 (282 units)
Top 10 in March 2022 (PHEVs):
1. Volvo XC60 PHEV (805 units)
2. Volvo S60/V60 PHEV (532 units)
3. Kia Ceed SW PHEV (422 units)
4. Kia XCeed PHEV (324 units)
5. Ford Kuga PHEV (286 units)
6. Volvo S90/V90 PHEV (279 units)
7. Volvo XC40 PHEV (259 units)
8. Kia Niro PHEV (220 units)
9. Toyota RAV4 PHEV (212 units)
10. BMW X1 PHEV (211 units)
Top 10 in March 2022 (BEVs + PHEVs):
1. Tesla Model Y (1363 units)
2. Kia Niro BEV+PHEV (993 units)
3. Tesla Model 3 (990 units)
4. Volkswagen ID.4 (906 units)
5. Volvo XC40 BEV + PHEV (855 units)
6. Volvo XC60 PHEV (805 units)
7. Volvo S60/V60 PHEV (532 units)
8. Polestar 2 (505 units)
9. Kia Ceed SW PHEV (422 units)
10. Nissan Leaf (402 units)
I was a bit disappointed by the Kia EV6’s result. The Ioniq 5 and the Kia EV6 are some of the best electric vehicles on the market — so far — when it comes to reducing charging times, and bringing the experience of charging an EV a bit closer to fueling up an ICE vehicle.
(Yes, I have heard that charging an EV does not really take your time if you can charge at home: you pull into the garage, plug in the charging cable and that’s it. But there are people who cannot charge at home, and these people still need cars.)
As the Swedish plug-in vehicle market — once overwhelmingly dominated by PHEVs — is tilting more toward all-electric vehicles, one would expect that those models that can charge the fastest would be preferred by customers… So why the poor results?
Well, sales results should never be confused with customers’ preferences — certainly not when there are problems on the supply side. You do not need to do a lot of Googling to find out that wait times for electric cars became a problem in Sweden. In the case of the Kia EV6, they are especially long for the dual-motor AWD variant (there is also an RWD variant).
The older Kia Niro EV might be a great vehicle in its own right, but its comparatively good sales are probably helped by the fact that prospective customers do not need to wait that long.
Another observation: while the BMW iX (the large electric SUV) was selling like hotcakes in Norway, its sales in the neighboring Sweden were much lower, at less than 100 units in March. Maybe because deliveries are only starting; but it could also be that Swedes, when buying a car of that size, still have some cheaper options (especially options that come with a combustion engine onboard); Norwegians, with their taxation rules, not so much.
Year-to-date results (January-March 2022, or Q1 2022)
BEVs:
1. Kia Niro EV (2480 units)
2. Volkswagen ID.4 (2022 units)
3. Tesla Model Y (1954 units)
PHEVs:
1. Volvo XC60 PHEV (2057 units)
2. Kia Ceed SW PHEV (1334 units)
3. Volvo S60/V60 PHEV (1097 units)
BEVs + PHEVs:
1. Kia Niro BEV+PHEV (3146 units)
2. Volvo XC40 BEV+PHEV (2176 units)
3. Volvo XC60 PHEV (2057 units)
Year-to-date, the Kia Niro EV is the king of plug-in vehicles, followed by the Volvo XC60 PHEV. Or, if you count BEV and PHEV variants of the same model together, then the Kia Niro plug-in vehicle is the winner, but the second place goes to the smaller Volvo XC40.
Also, year-to-date, the VW ID.4 still maintains a small lead over the Model Y.
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Source: [1]
Note: the reason all major brands (except Tesla and Polestar) are showing in red in March 2022, some of them with registrations down by as much as 40% or 60%, is that these figures are in comparison to the same month of the previous year — and March 2021 was not a normal month. A year ago, in the face of upcoming changes to taxation, people rushed to buy cars, especially PHEVs and ICE cars, before these changes came into force. This brought the number of registrations in March 2021 to 40-something thousand, instead of the more typical 20-something thousand. So, compared to such a month, March 2022 obviously looks bleak, but it actually wasn’t a bad month for automakers.
