Renault-Nissan Alliance now sold 425,000 electric vehicles worldwide

09 Feb 2017

Renault ZOE

The Renault-Nissan Alliance, with Mitsubishi Motors, has now sold a total of 424,797 electric vehicles worldwide, as its global sales almost hit 10 million in 2016.

The Nissan LEAF, the first mainstream, mass-marketed electric vehicle, remains the world’s best-selling EV with more than 250,000 vehicles sold since its launch in December 2010.

In addition to the LEAF, Nissan also sells the e-NV200, a light commercial vehicle sold mainly in Europe and Japan since 2014.

Renault has sold more than 112,000 electric vehicles worldwide since 2011, including the Renault ZOE, Kangoo Z.E., Fluence Z.E., the SM3 Z.E. and the Twizy.

Renault was at the top of the European EV market last year, with sales up by 11 percent at 25,648 units (excluding Twizy). The ZOE led the EV ranking with 21,735 sold. Renault Pro+ recently announced the addition of two new commercial EVs to its line-up: the New Kangoo Z.E. and Master Z.E.

In 2016, the Renault-Nissan Alliance, including Mitsubishi Motors i-Miev series, sold 94,265 EVs, up more than 8 percent from 2015.

In terms of all vehicles, the Renault-Nissan Alliance delivered significant growth in 2016, with global sales of 9.96 million vehicles.

The Alliance sales figures include Mitsubishi Motors sales of 934,013 vehicles globally. Mitsubishi Motors joined the Alliance last year with Nissan‘s acquisition of a 34 percent equity stake in the company.

The Alliance brands accounted for about one in nine cars sold worldwide last year.

Groupe Renault’s sales were up 13.3 percent to 3,182,625 vehicles in 2016 for the last year of the “Drive the Change” plan. This marked the fourth consecutive year of sales growth with a record year-on-year increase of 374,000 units.

Both Renault and Dacia brands had a record year in terms of sales volumes and Renault Samsung Motors volumes were up by 38.8 percent. Market share and sales volumes are up in all regions, with the Renault brand becoming number two in Europe.

Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. sold a record 5,559,902 cars and trucks worldwide, up 2.5 percent. In the U.S.A. and China, the company achieved sales growth of 5.4 percent and 8.4 percent respectively, setting new records in both markets. Infiniti sold over 230,000 vehicles in 2016, a 7 percent increase from the previous year. In December alone, Infiniti sold 27,200 vehicles, an 18 percent increase versus the prior year.

Mitsubishi Motors sold 934,013 cars worldwide, down 13 percent. America is Mitsubishi’s largest global market, with 96,267 sales in 2016; Japan was in second place with 85,716 vehicles. The UK saw sales of 26,892 cars (a 0.9% market share).

Sales grew in the United States and Australia, but were offset by lower sales in Brazil, Russia, and the Middle East. Japanese sales were also affected by lower consumer confidence following the company admitting errors in fuel consumption testing data (the models affected were only sold in Japan).

Through Nissan’s partnership with Mitsubishi Motors, Nissan expects to target synergy benefits worth 24 billion yen in fiscal year 2017, rising to 60 billion yen in fiscal year 2018 and beyond.

AVTOVAZ, which sells cars under the LADA brand, sold 284,807 vehicles. Together, the Renault-Nissan Alliance and AVTOVAZ sell about one in three cars in Russia.

In 2016, the Renault-Nissan Alliance took several steps to advance the development of future vehicles that will be electric, autonomous and connected.

The Alliance plans to launch at least 10 models with autonomous drive functionality by 2020. Development and tests of connectivity and autonomous drive technologies are underway with several partners, including Microsoft and NASA.

The Renault-Nissan Alliance is a strategic partnership between Groupe Renault of France and Japan-based Nissan Motor and Mitsubishi Motors. The automakers combined sold 9.96 million vehicles in nearly 200 countries in 2016 – more than one in 9 vehicles worldwide. The Alliance has strategic collaborations with other automakers, including Germany’s Daimler and China’s Dongfeng. It also owns a majority stake in the joint venture that controls Russia’s top automaker, AVTOVAZ.