Stellantis EV sales pass Tesla
Stellantis chief executive Carlos Tavares says the group aims to become Europe’s top-seller of battery electric vehicles, ahead of Tesla and Volkswagen.
The group – which comprises brands including Citroen, DS, Fiat, Opel and Peugeot – enjoyed strong first-half sales of 105,413 battery electric vehicle, BEV, units in Europe, beating Tesla by 27,136 units and falling only 10,894 units short of Volkswagen Group’s half-yearly tally.
The figures, compiled by Dataforce, include registrations of BEVS across all EU countries as well as Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
Data from Finland, Portugal and Sweden was not available at the time of publication.
“We are head-on fighting for the top spot in terms of BEV sales in the European market,” Mr Tavares said.
Though largely unavailable in Australia, Stellantis offers a considerable range of BEV models in Europe, including the strong-selling Fiat 500 EV with 32,315 unit sales in the first half of 2022, Peugeot e-208 with 21,918, Opel Corsa-e, 13,380, Peugeot e-2008 with 11,650, Citroen C4 EV, 11,159, and DS 3 Crossback, 1104.
Stellantis is expected to further counter Tesla’s offerings in 2023 when it launches BEV versions of key Opel Astra and Peugeot 308-3008 models.
Industry analyst Matthias Schmidt said Tesla’s European sales continued to be impacted by Covid-19-related production shutdowns in Shanghai – where Model 3 sedans are built for export to Europe. But, with production of the Tesla Model Y ramping up in Berlin, he said Stellantis might have a different outcome by this time next year.
“Tesla witnessed regional quarterly volumes fall to their lowest levels in two years on the back of their Chinese COVID-19 shutdown,” Mr Schmidt said.
“Tesla is set to return with a bang in the third quarter.
“We expect Tesla to strengthen again in Europe in the second half of the year, with an estimated 200,000 units.”
Dataforce figures showed Tesla sold 39,969 examples of the Model Y in the first half of 2022, while Model 3 sales fell 25 percent to 38,280 units.
Mr Schmidt said Stellantis benefitted from particularly strong secondquarter sales, the group’s EV offerings more than doubling Tesla’s Western Europe sales – 60,560 versus 25,140.
Volkswagen Group registered 67,760 unit sales during the same period.
By way of reference, the best-selling all-electric Volkswagen Group vehicle in the region was the Skoda Enyaq, which sold 19,951 units across the first half of 2022.
Stellantis also achieved positive results on the light commercial vehicle front in the six months to June 30.
Mr Schmidt said the group gained from the sale of several thousand BEV vans after discontinuing most of its internal combustion powered offerings at the start of the year to avoid exceeding its EU emissions targets.
The Citroen Berlingo tallied 956 sales in the first half of 2022 compared with just 24 units over the same period in 2021.
Its sibling, the Opel Combo, had 866 unit sales in the first half of this year, according to Dataforce figures.