Sweden’s plug-in passenger vehicle sales grabbed 24.3% market share in February, more than doubling year on year from 11.8% in February 2019. Internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle sales declined dramatically, with petrol vehicle sales falling 24% and diesels falling a massive 36% compared to February 2019.
Sweden’s February EV mix was dominated by plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) over pure electrics (BEVs), with a ratio of just under 3:1.
Whilst EV sales grew significantly year on year, overall passenger vehicle sales were down 5.4%, with all of the hit falling on pure petrol/diesel vehicles. Petrol-engine vehicle sales fell 24%, from 10,818 in February 2019 to 8,211 last month. Diesel sales were hit even harder, falling 36% from 8,827 to 5,637 and now comprising just 25% of the overall market from 37% a year ago.
The top 3 most popular PHEV models were the Volvo S60/V60, Kia Optima, and Kia Niro. The BEV top 3 were the Kia Niro, Audi e-tron, and Renault Zoe. Kia’s EVs are crushing it right now in Sweden! However, last year’s overall favourites, the Mitsubishi Outlander (PHEV) and Tesla Model 3 (BEV), will likely climb back to the top in 2020 once delivery peaks and troughs are evened out.
National auto association BIL Sweden expects EV market share to average 30% in 2020. LMC Automotive has the country’s 2020 auto sales currently trending between 300,000 and 350,000, so we’re potentially looking at 90,000–105,000 EV sales for the full year. This will likely put Sweden ahead of pioneering Norway for the first time in EV sales volume, simply by virtue of its larger auto market.
Of course, Norway still remains a few years ahead of any other nation in EV market share, having just hit 68% in February.
Europe’s total EV sales are currently on track to hit 1 million in 2020, almost double the volume of 2019.
Author: Maximilian Holland
Source: Clean Technica
