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The Two New Heavyweight Champions in Belgium?

Sweet As Chocolate (On Snowy Days)

A dazzling new record of 743 EV's was set in Belgium last January, up 55% above the previous record of 479 units set in June '15 and 139% above the result of twelve months ago, with the 2016 EV Share starting at an astounding 1.68%, this is the first time the market share is above 1% and also the first time Belgium sold more EV's than Netherlands...


This Sweet as Belgian Chocolate start had the help of a new purchase subsidy in the Flanders region, that started on January 1st, with the majority of models benefiting from the favorable season, but there was one particular type of vehicle to excel last month: The Luxury SUV.

As snow visited Belgium in January, we had a 100% SUV podium, with the Volvo XC90 T8 beating the all-time sales record for a single model, with 203 units, in only its third month on the market, followed at a distance by another newcomer, the BMW X5 40e registered 108 units, while last year runner-up, the Porsche Cayenne Plug-In, started this year race in Third Place, with 93 units.

Looking at the rest of the ranking, the Tesla Model S and BMW i3 were tied in Fourth, with 47 units, while in #7 we have another Luxury SUV surpassing expectations, with the GLE500e selling 24 units (pb) and becoming the best selling Mercedes in the ranking.

Good result also for the veteran Citröen C-Zero, registering 8 units in January, exactly the same amount of units it had during the whole year of 2015...

On the other hand, two models under-performed in a significant way: The Volvo V60 Plug-In registered only 6 units, when a year ago it had 26, while the VW Golf GTE also only sold 6 units, far from the regular two digits sales of last year. 

In the manufacturers ranking, Volvo started 2016 in the lead (28%), followed by BMW (24%), and Porsche in Third, with 14%.

As curiosity, there was one Toyota Mirai registered last month. The Belgian roads will never be the same...

PlBelgiumJan.YTD%'15Pl
1Volvo XC90 T8 PHEV2032032713
2BMW X5 40e PHEV1081081515
3
4
Porsche Cayenne Plug-In
Tesla Model S
93
47
93
47
13
6
2
1
4BMW i3 *474763
6Nissan Leaf313148
7Mercedes GLE500e2424327
8Mercedes C350e2323316
9Mercedes B250e1919311
9BMW i8191939
11Audi A3 e-Tron161627
11Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV161626
11
14
15
16
16
18
19
Renault Zoe
Renault Kangoo ZE e)
Renault Twizy
Citröen C-Zero
Mercedes S500e
Porsche Panamera Plug-In
Volvo V60 Plug-In 
16
15
9
8
8
7
6
16
15
9
8
8
7
6
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
18
N/A
12
24
14
10
4
19
21
21
23
24
24
24
24
28
Volkswagen Golf GTE
Nissan e-NV200 / Evalia
Peugeot iOn
Smart Fortwo ED
Kia Soul EV
Peugeot Partner EV
Volkswagen e-Golf
Volkswagen e-Up!
Volkswagen Passat GTE
6
5
5
3
2
2
2
2
1
6
5
5
3
2
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
5
21
20
19
23
N/A
17
21
33

TOTAL743743100



Source: febiac.be


* - 9 Bev + 38 Rex





Plug-Ins Versus Regular Hybrids


PlModel    2016
1Toyota Auris Hybrid334
2Volvo XC90 T8 PHEV203
3Toyota Yaris Hybrid176
4BMW X5 40 PHEV108
5Porsche Cayenne Plug-In93

  

If we combine regular hybrid sales with plug-ins, it is visible the progression of plug-in hybrids regarding regular ones, with only the Toyota Auris Hybrid staying out of reach (For how long?) of the Plug-In SUV Armada. The Yaris Hybrid dropped to Third, while Lexus hybrid SUV's simply just disappeared from the ranking. 

Will we see Plug-in Hybrids outsell regular hybrids this year?
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