Renault Leads Europe’s EV Market Share, But Segment Still Lags

PARIS – Renault’s Kangoo ZE and Fluence ZE held a 28.2% market share of the European electric-vehicle market through September, making Renault the leading EV brand, the auto maker says.

The Kangoo ZE van, officially introduced in dealerships in late October 2011, is the leader in fullsize EVs, with 993 units sold last year and 4,179 deliveries through the first nine months of 2012.

The Fluence ZE sedan delivered 1,090 units in Europe and 573 elsewhere in the world through September. The figures imply a European market of 18,680 EVs in the year’s first nine months.

In bragging about its market leadership, Renault is not counting the Twizy, which sold 7,891 units in Europe through September, including 1,890 in France and 2,126 in Germany.

Renault won a joint bid by 19 French companies and organizations last year for 15,000 Kangoo ZEs to be delivered over several years. The EV is sold in 15 European countries.

The auto maker builds the electrified Kangoo in France, Twizy in Spain and Fluence in Turkey, and its high-volume hatchback Zoe is in pre-production in France.

The auto maker plans to sell a handful of Zoes this year and launch the EV at higher volumes in 2013, which will give it four battery-electric vehicles, more than any other OEM. However, being the leader does not necessarily mean commercial success, especially when it comes to EVs.

The 13,737 EVs Renault says it has sold worldwide since Jan. 1 amount to a mere 0.7 % of the 1,925,002 total vehicles the auto maker delivered in the year’s first nine months.

Renault’s  September EV sales of 1,067 units, including 435 Twizys, 125 Fluence ZEs and 507 Kangoo ZEs, fell below the auto maker’s monthly average of 1,526.