The liter of fuel at more than two euros is a godsend for the sales of electric cars, including and perhaps especially those with only a low autonomy. The 28% increase in “watture” registrations observed since the start of 2022 on the French market appears to be largely dependent on these vehicles having a battery of relatively modest capacity and, therefore, a limited range .
The most obvious example is that of the Fiat 500e, which managed, in one year, to represent more than 80% of all sales of this small city car whose distribution has reached unprecedented levels for fifteen years. A performance that owes a lot to the arrival of a version with a 23.8 kilowatt-hour (kWh) battery offering in principle 190 km of autonomy against 320 km for the one with a capacity of 42 kWh. This model now weighs 40% of the registrations of the small Italian city car.
“The first few months were a little difficult, but from March, that is to say when the price of fuel reached the threshold of 2 euros per litre, orders literally exploded”, assures Philippe Vautier, general manager of Fiat France. A little more comfortable and lively thanks to its lower weight, this version (invoiced from around 19,000 euros, ecological bonus deducted) is above all cheaper to buy by almost 4,000 euros. Batteries alone constitute more than a third of the value of an electric vehicle.
More broadly, there is strong growth in relatively inexpensive models intended for primarily urban use, which now total some 30% of the electric segment. The Dacia Spring (theoretically 230 km of range) has been distributed to more than 15,000 units across Europe in one year and ranks second in electric car sales on the French market behind the Peugeot e-208 and ahead the Renault Twingo.
Less range anxiety
If we consider vehicles of intermediate size, we also note that the share of the least well-endowed versions in kWh do better than resist. The Nissan Leaf at « small battery » (40 kWh) assumes nearly three-quarters of sales against the “big battery” launched in 2019. Ditto at Hyundai, where the proportion of registrations ensured by the Kona, equipped with a 39 kWh accumulator, has increased from 10% to 50% despite the presence of a version equipped with a 64 kWh battery.
Less heavy, these models display reduced consumption levels (during normal driving, the Fiat 500e is content with just over 13 kWh per 100 km in suburban use). They recharge in a few hours on an ordinary terminal at a much lower cost (a little more than 5 euros) than what is required to fill up with gasoline for an urban model with a combustion engine. On the other hand, family vehicles intended to be used as the main car of the household remain, whatever the brand, mainly distributed in their configuration guaranteeing the greatest radius of action, generally around 400 km. As for the best-selling Tesla Model 3, the successive price increases that have taken place in recent months are affecting its sales in France.
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