Oui Rhymes with EV: European Electric Numbers

Gary S. Vasilash –

January 22, 2016

Last year, Nissan moved 17,269 of its all-electric LEAFs in the U.S. Given that gas prices started sliding in 2015, it isn’t entirely surprising that compared with 2014 sales, things were off by 42.8%.

However, not everywhere on the globe is enjoying the kind of cheap gas that the U.S. is, so it is interesting to note that Renault—which, coincidentally, is Nissan’s alliance partner—saw its electric vehicle sales increase 49% in 2015.

The brand has a LEAF-like ZOE passenger car, the Kangoo Z.E., a light commercial vehicle, and the Twizy, which is essentially a neighborhood electric vehicle.

According to Renault, there were 97,687 electric vehicles sold in Europe in 2015, of which 23.6% were Renaults (or 25.2% if the Twizy numbers are included).

The single biggest seller is the ZOE, which had 18,453 registrations in 2015, or 19.2% of the European electric vehicle market.

Renault, which is headquartered in a suburb of Paris, acknowledges that a French government “superbonus” incentive (e.g., people swapping out of an old diesel into a new electric could get a 10,000€ incentive) helped, ah, facilitate the purchase of the car: of that 18,453 registrations, 10,670 were in France.