The best selling cars in Europe in 2020 (so far)

"davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com" (davesaddiction) 05/11/2020 at 16:10 • Filed to: None

2

19

Pretty interesting. Thanks, Jb boin!

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

So many Golfs!

Here’s U.S. F-150 sales, just for reference (total European population is roughly double the U.S.’s, but clearly public transportation in Europe is a much better option for many).

And here’s all of Europe, by brand, for 2019:

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

SBA Thanks You For All The Fish > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 05/11/2020 at 16:41

0

But... But... But... Elon’s People Assure me that the Tesla Model 3 is the best selling car in Europe, so there must be some mistake in this data.

What can a publication with the silly name of Autocar possibly know about the sales data on autos or cars?

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > SBA Thanks You For All The Fish 05/11/2020 at 16:43

0

Very interesting that the e-Tron in #1 in Norway - I wonder what percentage of total e-Trons produced to date are in Norway. 

fintail > SBA Thanks You For All The Fish 05/11/2020 at 16:47

2

Remember to count the time saved by not visiting filling stations at $100/hour when calculating your Model S ownership cost.

SBA Thanks You For All The Fish > fintail 05/11/2020 at 16:58

2

Yeah, I think I mentioned the other day how much I love those “unbiased” Total Cost of Ownership calculations on the Toyota-Tesla trade-off where the “periodic oil changes” on the Corolla over 60,000 miles were greater than the Gross National Product of several African nations.

So, in addition to spending $157,000 on oil-and-filter jobs on the Corolla, it’s only worth $3500 after 5 years.  So, CLEARLY, the Tesla Model 3 is a better buy despite being 135% more expensive.

SBA Thanks You For All The Fish > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 05/11/2020 at 17:01

1

Yeah, that jumped out at me as well. According to The Cult, the Model 3 is still a monster hit there, but those numbers sure indicated the bloom is off the rose by now.

I’m not sure where it ends up with Tesla, but every established geogr aphy they play in shows a certain “saturation” effect as the Early Adopters all bought and new entrants come to market.  If we have a two year recession I have no idea who-what-how the EV leaders will be coming out of that.

WasGTIthenGTOthenNOVAnowbacktoGTI > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 05/11/2020 at 17:03

1

Golf iz ze best!

WasGTIthenGTOthenNOVAnowbacktoGTI > SBA Thanks You For All The Fish 05/11/2020 at 17:04

1

How could I have been so blind???

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > SBA Thanks You For All The Fish 05/11/2020 at 17:19

0

They have a lead, for sure, but how long can it last, and how “sticky” will the brand be for current owners? It’s just bonkers to me that their stock is up 125% from the low it hit in March, especially with oil/gasoline prices where they are (and will be for some time). 

Jb boin > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 05/11/2020 at 17:28

1

They are importing by boat all of their cars in Europe and the shipping/number of car sold vary great ly between months, there is even a topic on this specific... topic on the T esla M otors C lub forum that has “only” 166 pages while being a little more than 5 months old .

MrSnrub > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 05/11/2020 at 17:31

1

VAG is just dominating - nearly a quarter of the market last year in Europe. I wonder how long the Golf will stay in the number one spot. The Mk8 is a very evolutionary update apart from the techno-fancy interior, which is arguably a step back, so I’m interested to see if it will manage the same sales bump the Mk6 and Mk7 did over their predecessors (well definitely not this year, because of coronavirus)

fintail > SBA Thanks You For All The Fish 05/11/2020 at 17:37

1

When you know your non-GAAP accounting is taken as gospel, and you have a Flavor-Aid drinking cult behind you who will defend you til the end of time, you can make other crazy claims.

Looks like I’ll need to buy a 3 then, it’s cheaper than walking, have you seen the cost of decent shoes?

The $100/hr filling thing was actually something claimed by the company, too.   I had a good laugh.

SBA Thanks You For All The Fish > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 05/11/2020 at 17:43

1

As Jb points out, they “did” have a lot of cars on boats at the end of last quarter, so they are able to deliver a few cars in Europe so far, but one of the other “BIG” problems in their business model is that they are so lumpy in sales— often choosing to ship boats full of cars to Europe in the first month of a quarter, then “pull out all the stops” to ship to the US in the third month of a quarter. This does lead to wildly erratic, hard to analyze results. HOWEVER, over the last several quarters sales in Norway have dropped considerably for Tesla.

The other “bizarre thing to watch” this quarter really boils down to “they never make any money actually SELLING cars”... it’s sorta like building cars is a loss-leader to recognize revenue from THE MONEY MAKER which is the sale of (illusory) green energy credits to the legacy guys. They have a billion dollars worth of those credits ready to recognize...as they sell cars to customers. In other words, if sales for the quarter are off 50% that part doesn’t hurt profit all that badly. However, they are in a box on recognizing “marginal profits” (at 100% gross margin) on the green credits.

They could easily see a 70% decline in gross revenues, but a multi-billion $$ swing in profit... simply because they can’t book the green credits. This is awful for cash flows, too.

And, yeah, all that bad stuff happens and the stock runs to $1500... “because Elon”...

SBA Thanks You For All The Fish > fintail 05/11/2020 at 17:50

1

Ha, do you know what SHOULD have sent them to FTC Investigation Purgatory? For awhile the “pricing calculator”, to get your True Price On a Tesla on their website, had the audacity to claim that your “savings on gasoline” was a credit to the purchase price of the car. They’d show an artificial ‘final price’ that included some BS credit (also an illusion) for your savings on gasoline purchases.

That’d be like Xerox showing your “true price on the color photocopier” including your savings due to all the counterfeit $20 bills you were going to print on it...

I’m sorry I’m such a cynic on “the Tesla story” but, like your $100 an hour for pumping gas anecdote.... some of it’s so ridiculous to the point of ludicrous. I mean, do I get paid $100 to sit in the Supercharger out in Barstow for 3 hours? Oh, that doesn’t count since I’m having my 3rd “Supercharger lunch” of the day.  you don’t get paid to have lunch.  now, I get it.

fintail > SBA Thanks You For All The Fish 05/11/2020 at 18:01

0

That might be where I saw the $100/hr filling claim (it also claimed it took 15 minutes to fill up a gasoline car, where?). I think it was around the time the S launched, I was curious and looked at the sketchy tools, and saw that - never forgot it.

Charging tech and infrastructure would still be what keeps me away from one, even more than the boring aesthetic, techdork image, build/material quality, etc. I go on several road trips every year, and although some claim it’s fun to stop every few hours for an hour or two and do nothing, I don’t want to be stuck in BFE when I could be going where I want.

gin-san - shitpost specialist > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 05/11/2020 at 18:25

1

Hungary getting in there with the Dacia Lodgy:

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > gin-san - shitpost specialist 05/11/2020 at 20:44

0

Great news!

duurtlang > gin-san - shitpost specialist 05/12/2020 at 03:14

1

A former oppo commenter from Hungary recently bought one. Apparently the Hungarian government offers an absolute purchase bonus on new 7 seat vehicles to families , and the Lodgy is the cheapest 7-seater. By far. This will explain the success of the Lodgy.

duurtlang > MrSnrub 05/12/2020 at 03:18

0

The Golf will drop in sales, partly because of cannibalism within not just VAG but VW itself. The mk8 is ugly and VW has recently introduced 2 crossovers below the Tiguan. T-cross and T-roc (puke) . As crossovers tend   to be less for more, I expect VW to make even more profit here , if we were to ignore Corona.

MrSnrub > duurtlang 05/12/2020 at 11:45

0

I don’t think the 8 is ugly but it’s fussier looking than the 7 and doesn’t really look any newer. I think the lack of physical controls will annoy people. Wouldn’t be surprised if it gets supplanted by the T-Roc in sales  a few years from now