Plug-in Electric Vehicle Sales Up 35% Across Europe

Europe has got the Plug-in vehicle bug, if the rise in sales across the region is anything to go by. The arrival of updated or new models into the market has helped boost sales of fully electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles by 35% for the first two months of the year.

BMW has been the top selling manufacturer, with VW in a close second place but the arrival of the new Nissan Leaf 2.0 is likely to bring the Japanese manufacturer closer to the Germans over the rest of the year. If Nissan's merger with Renault goes ahead that process will happen quicker.

Europe's plug-in market now accounts for one in fifty news car sales across the region, a figure which surpasses that in the rest of the world.

Part of the reason for this is that Europe sees the need to improve air quality as a priority and this is best achieved by enticing customers into electric vehicles which either remove pollution completely (in countries with a high proportion of renewable electricity generation) or at least move it away from population centres.

New Zealand seems to be a market ripe for exactly this sort of incentivised program for growing electric vehicles. The country generates most (and at times all) of its power from renewables, average commutes are short (11.6km in Auckland for example) and has to bring all of its oil in from overseas at great expense.

The most important thing in the short term is to persuade motor manufacturers to start bringing in electric versions of their most popular cars. The news that Renault will be bringing in the Zoe and Kangoo EV is certainly a good start.