In January, the Volkswagen Group sold more electric vehicles than any other company in key European markets. At the same time, Tesla’s share collapsed over the same period, and Chinese manufacturers collectively took first place.

Johannes Eisele / AFP / Getty Images

Tesla continues to lose ground in the European market. According to an open source report by automotive analyst Matthias Schmidt, 18 Tesla vehicles were shipped to 1619 key European markets in January, accounting for just 3,5% of the total. It is worth saying that in January 2020, the American automaker sold 1977 vehicles in Europe – then it was more than 5% of the market.

This analytics includes most of the European Union countries, as well as the UK, Norway, Iceland and Switzerland. But 13 countries of Central and Eastern Europe (including Russia) were not included in the statistics.

Mr Schmidt called Tesla’s January numbers consistently low, noting that the company’s European delivery schedule peaked at the end of each quarter. However, the analyst noted that Tesla’s annual shipments are currently lagging even behind Hyundai and Kia (which have become the third most popular group of electric car suppliers in Europe).

Tesla was the strong leader in electric car sales in Europe in 2019. Back then, the company sold over 109 vehicles, accounting for 000% of the region’s electric vehicle market. But in 31, the situation changed: Tesla lagged behind both the Volkswagen Group and the alliance of Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi. In 2020, Tesla already occupied only 2020% of the European market and even cut absolute supply of electric vehicles by 13% – to almost 10.

By the way, China is now the main market for electric vehicles – in January, 179 electric cars and hybrids were registered in China against 000 in Europe. This is all the more remarkable as 110 million electric vehicles were registered in Europe for the whole of 000, compared to 2020 million in China.

Schmidt’s report shows that the Volkswagen Group, which makes cars under the VW, Audi, Skoda, Seat and Porsche brands, was Europe’s largest supplier of electric vehicles in January, supplying 10 vehicles (193% of the total). It is closely followed with 22 electric vehicles by Stellantis, a group formed earlier this year as a result of the merger of Fiat Chrysler with PSA, which included Peugeot and Citroën. Stellantis is followed by the Korean group Hyundai and Kia, more and more popular in Europe with 9005 registrations. The Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi alliance is in fourth place with 7087 registrations. Then there are Daimler, BMW and Volvo – all of which have more electric cars on the market in January than Tesla.

Germany remains the largest electric vehicle market in Europe. The 16 electric vehicles registered in January is more than the total number of electric vehicles delivered to the next two largest markets, France and the UK, combined. In January, the Zoe Renault was the most popular EV model in Europe.

The situation on the global electric car market in 2020 as a whole can be read in a separate article.