European automaker Stellantis has yet to increase its EU-29 region BEV market share above levels achieved at the end of February, stalling slightly its European penetration growth story.
A 6pc year-on-year April growth in all-electric sales in the bloc's ten biggest national markets helped bring the OEM's year-to-date 2024 share of the EU29 region's BEV market to 14.1pc. And that increase in BEV volumes outpaces the growth seen in the automaker's overall portfolio, which stands 4.4pc up from the same period last year in terms of year-to-date deliveries.
Stellantis does not report explicit sales volumes, but only relative growth and market share figures.
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As with the previous two months, Stellantis identifies the French BEV market as a particular source of strength in april, having hailed "stunning" BEV growth of 76pc in the nation's market in February, followed by another 54pc year-on-year increase in March.
"In France, BEV volumes witness double-digit growth (+64.6pc), achieving a remarkable 37.4pc market share, up by 8.8 percentage points compared to the previous year, with Peugeot E-208 and Fiat 500e respectively number one and number two," Stellantis says.
The firm also reports "significant volume increases" in Portugal (albeit only +3.9pc in a relatively small national market) and Poland (+9.2pc) in year-to-date terms compared to 2023.
Stellantis says it is launching 18 new BEV models before the end of the year on its next-generation STLA platform. However, the majority of them will be followed by ICE versions as the company looks to prioritise flexibility if EV demand struggles.
As such, the company is guiding towards a relatively slow first half of 2024, ahead of a significant ramp-up of the new platform in the second half. At the end of Q1 management guided towards a 10-11pc operating margin for the first half of the year.
"Our first months' results reflect the tough industry competition, in absence of incentives in many significant European markets," says Stellantis COO Uwe Hochgeschurtz.
Ciaran has written about finance, politics and culture. He is passionate about e-mobility and what it means for our way of life.
Ciaran has a Masters in Ancient Philosophy from Oxford University.
