Global EV sales rose 70% YoY in 2015
Following on from yesterday’s report on electric vehicle (EV) sales growth in the Netherlands, Norway, and Germany last year, further 2015 sales data has emerged today; electric vehicles captured a 1.4% share of China’s total auto market in December 2015, equal to roughly 34,100 unit sales, reflecting a 223% growth in sales over the year. In addition, nearly 200,000 electric vehicles were delivered to buyers in Europe during 2015, roughly double the figure for 2014, and accounted for 1.24% of all European auto sales for 2015, helping global EV sales to surpass half a million units last year, up 70% compared to figures for 2014.

Originally published on EV Obsession.

More than half a million plug-in electric vehicles were delivered to buyers globally in 2015 — just under 540,000, to be nearly exact — according to new figures from EV-Volumes, an EV sales database and consultancy now partnering with EV Obsession and CleanTechnica.

These new numbers represent a roughly 70% increase over the figures for 2014 — and that’s after the 2014 figures represented a roughly 50% increase on the 2013 ones. The above figures relate to both all-electrics (EVs) and plug-in hybrids (PHEVs).

The year-end spike in EV sales seen in the graph above relates to the fact that EV incentives in some countries (Sweden, the Netherlands, Denmark, etc) were slated to be slashed in 2016 — so interested buyers rushed to purchase EVs before the cuts went into effect, likely siphoning sales from early 2016.

EV-Volumes provides more on that, and other things as well:

The accelerated growth is a good sign for EV adoption. Nearly 200,000 plug-ins were sold in Q4 alone! Admittedly, some special events inflated the quarter 4 results much beyond the trend of Q1-Q3. There was the run on plug-in hybrids in the Netherlands and Sweden (lower incentives for 2016), the boost in mini-EV sales in China (lower subsidies, depending on range) and the Tesla hype in Denmark (revised tax exemption schemes), to name the most significant.

More natural demand was created by a spree of new plug-in hybrids during the 2nd half of 2015: BYD Tang, Chevy Volt II, Passat GTE, BMW X5, and Volvo XC90. Accordingly, sales volume of plug-in hybrids increased faster (+80%) than for pure EVs (+64%). The global ratio of EV:PHEV is now 60:40; PHEV gained 2% in the mix during 2015.

That said, the share of the total global auto market held by electric vehicles (EVs and PHEVs) was in 2015 still only 0.6%. Cumulative numbers are starting to get up there, though, with PHEV numbers passing the 1 million mark sometime around September 2015.

Image Credits: EV-Volumes

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