Portugal EV Market Share = 12%

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Portugal is a somewhat surprising bright spot in the electric vehicle market. It has one of the highest EV market shares (share of its overall auto market) in the world, yet is not a very wealthy nation like Norway of the Netherlands. And it’s EV market share hasn’t popped all of a sudden, but has instead been the result of a strong gradual rise. The country has been doing well consistently for a while.

Like other countries in Europe, 2020 has been especially kind to EV market share in Portugal, with 12% of new auto sales being plug-in vehicles in 2020, and the same for June of 2020.

With such a higher EV market share, and also being a different kind of market from Norway, the Netherlands, or Sweden, I think it’s an important one to look at closely to get a sense of how the EV market is evolving and how it will in the future.

As you can see above, Portugal has an unlikely leader, a car that used to be #1 in many EV markets but seldom holds that position today. With relatively low pricing already, but then also strong discounts (from what I hear), the LEAF is still #1 in Portugal. It is followed by the two models you routinely see at the top of the charts these days — the hotter than Honolulu Tesla Model 3 and the elegant yet economical Renault Zoe. They wrap up a couple of popular vehicle classes and price points, with the LEAF sliding in between them, in this rare case with the LEAF on top.

A slew of premium-class plug-in hybrids fill out the rest of the top 10, only broken up by the new-ish Peugeot 208 EV. José Pontes of EV Volumes (and CleanTechnica) notes that plug-in hybrid (PHEV) sales were actually up 12% in June 2020 compared to June 2019, compared to plug-in vehicles as a whole being up 3% and overall vehicle sales being down significantly. There’s one more note on the PHEV rise.

June sales bring some surprised that may lead to notable changes in the full-year ranking by the time December comes around. The Volvo XC40 PHEV dominated, while the Tesla Model 3 sat way down in the #9 spot — despite it being an end-of-quarter month. Though, the Model 3’s problem may be a production matter rather than a demand on.

The XC40 PHEV rose from #10 to a far-in-the-lead #1 position in June. The Mercedes-Benz A250e also did quite well, rising from #10 in the full-year ranking to #3 in June.

Any other thoughts on these sales charts and trends int he industry?

Here are the sales charts again with “Others” (all other plug-in vehicles combined) added:


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Zachary Shahan

Zach is tryin' to help society help itself one word at a time. He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as its director, chief editor, and CEO. Zach is recognized globally as an electric vehicle, solar energy, and energy storage expert. He has presented about cleantech at conferences in India, the UAE, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, the USA, Canada, and Curaçao. Zach has long-term investments in Tesla [TSLA], NIO [NIO], Xpeng [XPEV], Ford [F], ChargePoint [CHPT], Amazon [AMZN], Piedmont Lithium [PLL], Lithium Americas [LAC], Albemarle Corporation [ALB], Nouveau Monde Graphite [NMGRF], Talon Metals [TLOFF], Arclight Clean Transition Corp [ACTC], and Starbucks [SBUX]. But he does not offer (explicitly or implicitly) investment advice of any sort.

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