These electric cars are the most popular this year

The calendar is on July, so we were recently able to tell you what the most popular brands and new models were in the Netherlands in June. Now that we have June’s registration numbers, we can figure out what the most popular makes and models will be in the first half of 2023. We start with the Top 10 most popular new electric passenger cars. It will come as no surprise to anyone that the Tesla Model Y is by some distance the electric car with the most units registered in the first half of 2023.

Tesla Model Y in the lead

With 1,702 new registrations, the Tesla Model Y was the most popular new car in the Netherlands in June and can therefore also call itself the most popular new electric car. In the first six months of this year, Tesla managed to register no fewer than 6,761 Models Y in our country. Of these, 3,263 were registered in the second quarter. In second place and at a considerable distance we find the Peugeot e-208. The electric variant of the 208 accounted for 3,576 registered units in the first half of 2023. A total of 5,990 new 208s have already been registered this year. This means that 59.7 percent of all 208s registered in the Netherlands in the past six months were an e-208. The Volvo XC40 Recharge Electric is in third place with 3,523 registrations in the first half of the year. A total of 4,992 new XC40s were delivered this year. Almost 71 percent of all Volvo XC40s registered in the first six months of this year therefore had an electric powertrain.

The rest of the Top 10 consists of the usual suspects. The registration counter of the Renault Megane E-Tech stands at 2,292 units over the first half of the year and is therefore good for fourth place, followed by the Volkswagen ID4 in fifth place with 2,248 registrations. In the first half of 2022, there were only 893. To date, 2,159 units of the Skoda Enyaq iV have been registered this year. That gives the electric Czech sixth place. In the first half of 2022, there were considerably more (2,700 units). The Tesla Model 3 is also present in the Top 10 most popular electric models and is in seventh place with 2,132 units. In the first half of last year there were only 368.

Eighth place is for a sister model of the electric Peugeot e-208. With 1,954 registrations in the first half of 2023, we find the Opel Corsa Electric in position eight. A total of 4,699 Opel Corsa were registered in the first six months of this year. That means that just under 42 percent of all Opel Corsa registered this year was an electric Corsa Electric. The Volkswagen ID3 is in 9th place with 1,952 registered copies in the first half of 2023. The electric variant of the Kia Niro closes the Top 10 with 1,725 ​​registered copies. A total of 3,317 Niros were registered in the first half of 2023. More than half (52 percent) of these had an electric powertrain.

Most popular new electric cars (first half of 2023)

Most popular electric cars in the Netherlands, June 2023

Audi, BMW and Mercedes Benz

Audi saw the registration figures of its e-tron models decrease, with the exception of the SUVs now called Q8 e-tron. Of these, 550 units were registered in the first half of the year (first half of 2022: 394 units). With 54 copies, 34 fewer of the E-tron GT were registered than in the first half of 2022. The Q4 e-tron was also slightly less popular with 1,464 registrations than last year (1,527 units). BMW’s electric models generally scored better than in the first half of 2022. 1,619 copies of the i4 have been registered, more than three times as many as in the first half of 2022 (552 units). 96 units of the i7 have been registered and 1,360 units of the new iX1. More copies of the iX3 have also been registered, although the growth here is smaller. In the first half of 2023, there were 907 copies. In the same period last year, the car recorded 884 registrations behind its name. Almost all Mercedes-Benz EQ models are doing better than last year, with the exception of the EQS (139 units in 2023 versus 223 in 2022) and the EQV (85 units versus 92 units). The biggest gain was for the EQE, with 395 copies more than twice as many cars were registered as in the first half of 2022.

The MG 4 Electric is certainly not wrong.

Chinese EVs

BYD already announced at the introduction of the Atto 3 that this electric crossover would become its most important model for the time being. There doesn’t seem to be a word about that. In the first half of 2023, 557 specimens were registered, while both the Han and the Tan recorded only 14 specimens to their name. The equally Chinese Hongqi registered 31 copies of the E-HS9 in the first half of the year. We will stick to the Chinese brands for a while. The attractively priced MG 4 Electric accounted for 1,122 registrations in the past six months. Of these, nearly 500 were registered in June. Electric station wagon MG 5 kicked it to 544 registrations, the ZS EV to 1,048 units and top model Marvel R to 105. The Nio ET5, ET7 and EL7 were good for 36, 24 and 31 registrations respectively. So Nio is not running fast yet. June was the first month in which the Smart #1 was delivered. 11 pieces passed the RDW. Xpeng did not manage to register a single P7, but one P5 did receive a Dutch license plate registration.

Honda e and Jaguar I-Pace barely visible

The electric Cupra Born also performed less well with 434 units in the first half of the year than in the same period last year (665 units). The same applies to the Ford Mustang Mach-E, registrations of which fell from 426 units in the first half of 2022 to 186 units in the first six months of this year. With 832 registrations in the first half of the year, the Dacia Spring does the Romanian brand no harm. And the Honda e? It is quite invisible with 4 registrations so far. The Jaguar I-Pace plays a similar role in the margins. Only 5 of these were registered this year.

The Hyundai Ioniq 6 is not yet as popular as the Ioniq 5.

Korean EV power, Tesla Model S and Model X lag behind

As expected, Hyundai is doing pretty good business with the Ioniq 5. 1,379 EVs were registered. In the first half of 2022 there were 670. The Hyundai Ioniq 6 has already received a registration certificate 542 times. The EV6 of sister brand Kia scored in the first half of the year with 1,415 registrations, about the same as in the same period last year (1,421 units). The number of Tesla Model S (160) and Model X (159) registered this year pales in comparison to that of their younger, more compact brothers. The Volkswagen ID5 and ID Buzz yielded 385 and 210 registrations respectively. The Volvo C40 stopped at 1,093 registered copies.

Newcomer Lexus RZ has only been delivered since June and kicked it to a modest 27 registrations in that month. Top electric SUV Lotus Eletre has been registered 11 times and 16 units of the Lucid Air have been registered. The Nissan Ariya delivered 38 registrations in June, bringing the total to 268 units this year. The Polestar 2 did not reach all but one copy of the 1,000 registrations in the first half of the year. With 453 registrations to date, Porsche’s Taycan remains relatively popular. At the other end of the EV spectrum, the Renault Zoe operates. That old-timer still managed to rake in a not-so-wrong 454 registrations. The Subaru Solterra kept it to a modest 30 units in the first half of the year, but that made it the best-selling Subaru in our country. Technical sister model Toyota bZ4X did a lot better with 283 registrations in the past six months.