Renault-Nissan report record sale of electric cars

Renault-Nissan has claimed it has achieved a record number of plug-vehicle sales in 2015, despite an overall decline in electric-car sales.

The drop in EV sales was apparently a secondary effect of declining petrol prices, although the company insists 2015 was still a good year for its own plug-in sales.

Renault-Nissan’s figures suggest it delivered 84,754 electric cars, a 2.5 per cent increase compared to the previous year. However, sales of the Nissan Leaf and the Nissan e-NV200 electric van dropped 9.8 per cent. Yet, the difference in sales was made up by a 45 per cent increase in sales for Renault electric cars, in particular the Zoe hatchback and Kangoo Z.E van.

The increase in sales was helped partially by a new French incentive programme, due to begin in April, which will see the French government offering consumers a €10,000 rebate for buying a new electric car and trading in a diesel car older than 15 years.

The move is part of France’s change of strategy to de-incentivise the buying of diesel cars due to concerns over air pollution and climate change, where it originally prompting them.

Overall, Renault-Nissan achieved a total of 302,000 electric-car sales in 2015.

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