West European plug-in passenger car registrations, including plug-in hybrids, already surpassed diesel-powered ICE cars for the first time earlier this year, much like an icebreaker navigating the thawing North Sea Route (NSR) shipping passage on Russia's northern outskirts (August). With the EV path open and plug-in adoption expanding, BEVs alone surpassed new diesel cars in December (inc. hybrids). According to Schmidt Automotive Research data, BEVs represented for one-fifth (20.4%) of the December new passenger car market in the 18 market West European region, while diesels contributed for less than 19%.
The annual end-of-year CO2 compliance shot in the arm, which saw an armada of struggling manufacturers late to the CO2 compliance game push EV models, as well as the normal fiscal tweaks in important countries (Netherlands), boosted BEV volumes. As a result, nearly every third new Nissan (30.3%) and every fourth (24.4%) Porsche sold in December were BEVs. This was accompanied by Tesla’s end-of-quarter volume jump (Dec: 34,747 units), which surpassed Ford’s same month volumes (31,798), resulting in a new monthly volume record (175,491: +6% y/y) in an overall semiconductor limited market (Dec: 860,948; -21.2% y/y).
According to Schmidt Automotive Research data, the diesel new passenger car market share peaked at 55.5% in 2011. However, diesel’s downward trajectory was accelerated in 2015 by dieselgate, which sent shudders through European OEM headquarters’ that were betting on oil burners to guarantee a profitable route to new CO2 compliance targets that were fast approaching on the horizon. However, the work of those Wolfsburg engineers may have been the aphrodisiac that the electric car market was yearning for, at roughly the same time that Tesla began softening EVs’ blunt image.
Marketing departments and strategists struggled to find a solution with almost irreparable OEM pictures. Within 30 days of VW AG’s ex-CEO Winterkorn’s face being strewn across the world’s financial media, the protagonist at the centre of the affair, Volkswagen, held the first meeting to discuss the MEB/ID. Series automobiles. The MEB platform went from the drawing board to the commencement of production in autumn 2019 after a four-year development cycle.
