In the first quarter of 2015, Norway ranked first on the IHS Automotive Plug-In Electric Vehicle Index, which ranks the market share of plug-in electric vehicle (EV) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) registrations in a given quarter for eight countries. EV/PHEVs represented one third of new vehicles registered in Norway during the first quarter of this year, enabling the country to lead the first quarter rankings with just over 8,000 units and achieving a 41 percent increase in volume over the same period in 2014.
EVs in Norway have benefitted from a number of incentives, including no import taxes, thereby enabling the vehicles a viable alternative to internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles in the country. The dominant model among Norwegian consumers during the first quarter was the Volkswagen e-Golf and the country experienced the second largest growth in EV share with more than 5,700 units registered, representing 5.7 percent of the market during the quarter.
The US and China led all countries based on volumes of new EV/PHEVs registered during the quarter, with nearly 15,000 registrations in the U.S. and nearly 13,000 registrations in China.
“While the federal tax credit in the US of up to $7,500 USD for plug-in electric vehicles is continuing to encourage sales across the country, the adoption of these vehicles has been uneven, as consumer consideration and choice has skewed in favour of states offering additional incentives, like the Clean Vehicle Rebate Project in California or Georgia’s Zero Emission Vehicle Tax Credit” said Ben Scott, senior analyst - IHS Automotive. “In addition, low fuel pump prices are adversely influencing EV/PHEV purchases among U.S. consumers.”
Market share for EV/PHEVs in the US remains low, accounting for just 8 percent of the market during the quarter. Based on volume, the most popular EV/PHEV in the US is the Tesla Model S.
In China, government incentives support EV and PHEV ownership with registrations in the country rising by nearly 750 percent between the first quarter last year and the same timeframe this year. However, they continue to represent a very small percentage of the overall market in China at just 3 percent. This means that further incentives may need to be considered in order to increase consumer acceptance. The most popular plug-in vehicle in China is the BYD Q.
The UK has also seen impressive growth for plug-in vehicles of 392 percent between Q1 2014 and Q1 2015. In other countries, such as Germany, incentives are lacking and thus the rate of take-up is low. Although plug-in vehicle registrations in Germany increased by 98 percent between Q1 2014 and Q1 2015, the increase comes from a small base. Many of the plug-in vehicles registered in Germany during the timeframe were electrified variants of traditional ICE models. Popular vehicles include the Volkswagen Golf GTE PHEV and Audi A3 PHEV. The country is considering further incentives on plug-in electric vehicles to support future adoption.
France experienced similar growth to Germany over the same period, but offers more incentives on plug-in electric vehicles.
IHS Automotive is a global provider of critical information and insight to the automotive industry and part of IHS Inc. The IHS Automotive Plug-in Electric Vehicle Index is part of the IHS Automotive Hybrid-EV portal, which is designed to provide in-depth, real-time information on all facets of the e-mobility market. It contains global and regional forecasts for vehicle production, systems, components, and infrastructure; a specification database outlining the key features of electric vehicles (and who supplies them); a legislation/incentive database; and daily news service. The IHS Automotive Plug-in Electric Vehicle Index is a quarterly ranking of the top EV/PHEV countries and insights into market drivers of market share and quarterly changes in volume.
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