Tesla Model 3 topped the global EV sales ranking compiled by CleanTechnica and EV Volumes for 2018. In fact, Tesla as a brand dominated the top 5, with all three of its models there. The Nissan Leaf and BAIC EC-Series were also among the top five EVs sold in 2018.
In absolute terms, Tesla Model 3 sales topped 140,000, with Chinese BAIC’s EC-Series at about 90,000 vehicles and the Nissan Leaf slightly lower than that. Tesla challengers from BMW, Toyota, Renault, and Mitsubishi were far down the list.
The ranking suggests that the Model 3 may indeed turn out to be the car that will tip Tesla’s fortunes into positive territory, after a string of mass production delays and an even longer string of quarterly losses reported by Tesla made many doubt whether the company had long to live.
Yet the most shorted company in the history of the U.S. market somehow managed to turn things around and ramp up the Model 3 production quickly enough to report a profit for the third quarter of 2018. The company remained in the black in the next quarter as well, although it is not completely out of the woods as it also announced job cuts of 7 percents in order to make its cars more cost-competitive.
The ranking results are good news for the global EV market as a whole, however, even though they might worry Europe’s big carmakers who have ambitious plans to take on Tesla with extensive new EV lineups. Total EV sales last year brought the share of plug-in cars to 2.1 percent, which, albeit not a very impressive figure on its own, is a lot more than EVs accounted for just two years ago.
This year Tesla plans to add another model to its lineup, the Tesla Semi, which the head of Daimler’s truck business notoriously mocked as going against the laws of physics. However, the truck may already be in the testing stage, according to an Electrek report from January citing a logistics company Tesla had approached with a proposal to test drive the Semi that was showcased last year.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
