56% increase in the first half of the year

According to the “European Auto News” report, in the first half of this year, the sales of electric vehicles in the European market continued to be strong, rising by 56%, becoming the fastest growing segment in the European automobile market; closely followed by compact SUVs/cross-border vehicles. The increase was as high as 37%.

In the first half of this year, the demand for electric vehicles in the European automobile market continued to grow vigorously, and the most important stimulus to the rapid growth of electric vehicles was Hyundai Ioniq, which sold a total of more than 10,000 vehicles. Overall, in the first half of this year, the total sales of the electric vehicle segment reached 73,162 units, a total increase of 27,000 units, an increase of 56%.

In spite of the strong performance of Hyundai Ioniq, Ioniq still failed to enter the top 3 of the forum and it was behind the BMW i3 in third place with a total of 306 vehicles. According to JATO Dynamics, the improved version of Renault Zoe became Europe's best-selling electric vehicle in the first half of this year, with total sales of 16,783 units, followed by the Nissan Leaf, with a total sales volume of 10,961 units.

European electric vehicle performance in the first half of 2017

However, although electric vehicles are the fastest-growing segment of the European auto market in the first half of this year, the market share of electric vehicles is still very small, at only 0.9%, which is a slight increase from 0.6% in the same period of last year.

In the first half of this year, the second fastest growing European auto market segment was compact SUVs and cross-border vehicles. The growth rate was as high as 37%, reaching 989,421 vehicles. Among them, the new Peugeot 3008 has greatly promoted the sales growth of the sector. In the first half of this year, the total sales volume of the Peugeot 3008 exceeded 81,000 and became the third-ranked brand in the segment. The first is the Nissan Qashqai (136,480 units). The second is the Volkswagen Tiguan (128033).

The great success of the Peugeot 3008 once again confirmed the accuracy of Peugeot’s decision to create a cross-border vehicle for the next generation 3008. If the 3008 is still a minivan, then the first half of the year may encounter difficulties. In the first half of this year, the Minivan segment slipped by 5.7%, and sales fell to 300,252. In addition, the compact SUV segment also benefited significantly from the new Volkswagen Tiguan. In the first half of this year, sales increased by 55,036 units compared to the same period last year, reaching 12,803 units.

In addition, the newly-listed Audi Q2 also significantly boosted sales of high-end compact SUVs/cross-border vehicles. The total sales volume of the Q2 reached 42,398 units, and the sales volume of the entire sector was 237,542 units, an increase of 24%. The total sales of the Audi Q2 and its brother model Q3 reached 84,195 units, a total of 51,353 units. However, due to the internal competition of these two Audi models, the BMW X1 has benefited greatly and has become the best-selling high-end model in the segment. The sales volume of the BMW X1 has increased by 29% to 61,101.