Tesla Model 3 to Repeat Norway Success Story In France

September was a very good month for Tesla Model 3 sales in France. It sold 2,833 units to become the leader in BEV sales, followed by the Renault Zoe with 2,382 and the Peugeot 208 EV with 2,090 units sold.

Basically, the Model 3 became last month’s best seller in the plugin category, and 9th overall, while also being the best selling foreign model; all in all last month’s plugin registrations ended at 28,781 units, divided between 16,984 BEVs (Battery Electric Vehicles) and 11,797 PHEVs (Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles).

According to cleantechnica.com, "...the year-to-date (YTD) registrations are now over 200,000 units, pulling the market share of plugin vehicles to a record 17% (8.5% BEV). That is a good 6 percentage point increase over the 2020 result (11%), and it looks like France is on target for the 20% plugin vehicle share I previously predicted for the whole year."

In Norway, the Tesla Model Y was the star of the show in September 2021. It sold more than 2,500 units in the first 17-days and the final number was 3,564; a massive delivery number (almost 20% of the market), which combined with a very high 2,218 Tesla Model 3 sales, translates to a total of 5,782 new Tesla cars and 32% of the market. The Tesla Model 3 remains the top model in the country year-to-date (9,266 units and 7.2% share). The Tesla Model Y quickly climbs up to the #6 YTD.

As per "insideevs.com" latest information, the BEV registration results in Norway (year-to-date) is as follows:

• Tesla Model 3 - 2,218 (9,266 YTD)
• Volkswagen ID.4 - 659 (6,289 YTD)
• Ford Mustang Mach-E - 600 (5,123 YTD)
• Tesla Model Y - 3,564 (4,873 YTD)
• Audi e-tron - 672 (4,789 YTD)
• Skoda Enyaq iV - 787 (3,935 YTD)
• Nissan LEAF - 410 (3,594 YTD)
• Mercedes-Benz EQC - 161 (3,462 YTD)
• Polestar 2 - 80 (2,879 YTD)
• Volkswagen ID.3 - 456 (2,436 YTD)
• MG ZS EV - 155 (2,305 YTD)
• Hyundai Ioniq 5 - 652 (2,056 YTD)

Going back to France, the adoption of plug-in electric vehicles in the country is actively supported by the French government through a "bonus-malus" system through which it provides subsidies towards the purchase of all-electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids with low CO2 emissions. The government also provides non-monetary incentives; subsidies for the deployment of charging infrastructure; and long term regulations with specific targets. Additionally, France passed a law in December 2019 to phase out sales of cars that burn fossil fuels by 2040.

As of September 2021, there were 687,876 light-duty plug-in electric vehicles in use in France, consisting of 453,143 all-electric passenger cars and commercial vans, and 234,733 plug-in hybrids. Of these, over 50,000 were fully electric light commercial vehicles. The split among the type of powertrain is influenced by the rules of the government subsidies, which favors pure electric vehicles over plug-in hybrids.

The plug-in passenger car segment attained a market share of 0.5% in 2013, rose to 1.2% in 2015, 2.2% in 2018, and climbed to 2.8% in 2019. Despite the global strong decline in car sales brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, plug-in electric car sales in France during the first six months of 2020 achieved a record sales volume of 65,267 units, and a market share of 9.1%.

As I said before, Tesla’s Model 3 remains in the lead, ahead of the Renault Zoe and the Peugeot e-208, in an electric car market which is gaining market share. Will Tesla repeat the success it achieved in Norway in Voltaire´s land? We´ll see in the coming months.

Nico Caballero is the VP of Finance of Cogency Power, specializing in solar energy. He also holds a Diploma in Electric Cars from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, and enjoys doing research about Tesla and EV batteries. He can be reached at @NicoTorqueNews on Twitter. Nico covers Tesla and electric vehicle latest happenings at Torque News.