According to the latest preliminary data on Renault EV sales, the French manufacturer ended the year of 2013 with 18,673 electric vehicles sold. Of which ~97% were sold in Europe.
Renault’s first model, the Renault Fluence Z.E., noted a huge downfall from low levels in 2012 to rock bottom in 2013 and recently we learned that production had been halted. Less than 1,000 units were sold last year.
On the other hand, we have the very stable Renault Kangoo Z.E., with sales that almost reached 6,000. That’s +4% year over year. (See Nissan, people love electric vans – so started building and shipping those e-NV200s already)
Then we have the Renault ZOE that was unable to exceed 9,000 units. This is not a bad result as this EV is sold only in Europe and not in all countries there (significant was the absence of Zoe sales in Norway in 2013) — but we do expect more from ZOE in the coming years, as does the French auto maker.
And finally, we have the Renault Twizy. Again, a huge drop in sales from over 9,000 in 2012 to just over 3,000 in 2013. Maybe 2014 will be a better year for Twizy with the addition of a corporate-friendly “Cargo” edition.
Overall, Renault sold 11% more EVs in 2013 than it did in 2012, but the structure of those sales have changed significantly. In 2013, Renault sold about two times more full-size cars and three times less Twizys. All thanks to ZOE, which compensates for downfalls of both the Twizy and Fluence Z.E. In this way, the value of Renault’s EV sales increased because Twizy is much cheaper than Zoe.
In Europe, over 18,000 EVs gives Renault first place among automakers, but the French company must watch out as Nissan, Tesla, BMW and even VW will grow in terms of EV sales in the coming years.