In August 2022, Sweden’s auto market recorded a plugin electric vehicle share of 46.1%, a little but noticeable decline from 47.1% the previous year, according to CleanTechnica.
Interestingly, plugin hybrids lost more market share than fully EVs. At 20,576 units, overall auto volumes were 26% lower than pre-pandemic seasonal norms.
(GRAPH 1)
28.3% full electric vehicles (BEVs) and 17.8% plugin hybrids (PHEVs) made up the combined plugin result for August, which was 46.1%, comparatively to respective shares of 24.1% and 22.9% the previous year.
BEV increased in volume by 21.6% year over year, while PHEVs decreased by 19.6%.
This resulted in a 1.5% YoY volume growth for plugins, compared to a 3.6% growth for the market as a whole, thus a slight loss of plugin share.
As concluded by CleanTechnica, changes in incentive schemes in June and July caused the changing fortunes between the two types of plugins.
Nonetheless, plugin volume year to date is still increasing up to 10% YoY, while BEVs are up to 68%, reflecting a significant growth rate.
Top Selling BEVs
Just behind the Toyota RAV4, the Volkswagen ID.4 was the best-selling BEV in August and the second-best seller overall with its 654 delivered units. Remarkably, that figure is slightly more than its monthly average for 2022.
In the BEV rankings, the Nissan Leaf and MG ZS came in at #2 and #3, respectively, significantly improving their July performance.
(GRAPH 2)
It is worth noting that in August, the Toyota RAV4 (the country’s top-selling car overall) produced 90% plugless hybrid (HEV) variations and just 10% PHEV variants. Toyota currently controls 78.5% of Sweden’s HEV market but only 8.5% of the country’s overall auto market. In fact, HEVs account for 86.3% of Toyota’s Swedish sales this year, PHEVs for 7.9%, and BEVs for just 1.1%. On the plus side, only 4.7% of Toyota’s sales are combustion-only powertrains, versus a market share of 39.6% for this type of vehicle.
Going back to the top 20 chart of the BEV rankings for August, there were no entirely new entries, but relative newbies like the MG MG5, Cupra Born, and VW ID.5 all had excellent months and are now moving up the rankings.
Here is the graph for the trailing three-month performance of the most popular BEVs to see past the ups and downs of monthly variation:
(GRAPH 3)
The Tesla Model Y is in the lead, primarily because of its significant June push. Compared to three months earlier (March to May), when it was placed third, the Model Y has risen in the rankings. Meanwhile, the Tesla Model 3 fell from eighth to eighteenth place during the same time frame, probably due to constrained supply.
The ZS and the MG5 were two highly potent climbers for the MG brand, with combined volume up 2.3 times from March to May. On the other hand, the rank of numerous Volkswagen Group automobiles increased, including the Skoda Enyaq, Audi e-tron, Cupra Born, and VW ID.5.
CleanTechnica listed the summary of the leading climbers:
-The Tesla Model Y climbed from 3rd to 1st
-The MG ZS climbed from 12th to 3th
-The Skoda Enyaq climbed from 9th to 4th
-The Audi e-tron climbed from 13th to 8th
-The Cupra Born climbed from 16th to 10th
-The MG5 climbed from 28th to 11th
-The BMW i4 climbed from 22nd to 13th
-The Citroen C4 climbed from 29th to 14th
-The Peugeot 2008 climbed from 21st to 15th
-The VW ID.5 climbed from 40th to 17th
On the other hand, here is the list of the models below the main climbers listed above:
-The Kia Niro fell from 1st to 6th
-The Volvo XC40 fell from 4th to 29th
-The Polestar 2 fell from 5th to 9th
-The Tesla Model 3 fell from 8th to 18th
-The BMW i3 (retiring) fell from 10th to 22nd
-The Audi Q4 e-tron fell from 11th to 25th
-The Peugeot e-208 fell from 15th to 23rd
-The Volvo C40 fell from 25th to 45th
Nonetheless, it must be noted that Sweden is a relatively small BEV market when compared to Germany, the UK, and France, where volumes are typically 2.5x to 4x higher. Therefore, what may be occurring locally to a specific brand or model in Sweden may not always be indicative of how that brand or model is performing across Europe (or globally).
