The Renault-Nissan electric vehicle alliance continues to go from strength to strength. The Nissan Leaf is the best-selling all-electric car in history; the Renault Zoe is performing strongly in Europe, and the Mitsubishi i-MiEV is also contributing to sales.

Including the Mitsubishi sales, the alliance had sold a total of 424,797 vehicles up until the end of 2016, with 94,265 in combined sales last year. By comparison, Tesla sold 76,230 cars in 2016.
More than 250,000 Leafs have been sold since the model was launched in late 2010, while the Zoe was the top-selling electric car in Europe last year, moving 21,735 units.

Renault sold 25,648 electric vehicles in Europe last year, an increase of 11%. That figure does not include the Twizy low-speed EV.

Also in the works for Renault are an updated version of its Kangoo ZE electric van and a new ZE electric version of the larger Master van.

Last October, Renault-Nissan completed purchase of a 34 per cent stake in Mitsubishi, making it the Japanese car maker’s largest shareholder.

Mitsubishi’s greater experience with plug-in hybrids, having sold its Outlander Plug-In Hybrid in Europe and Japan since 2013, will be a great advantage for the alliance, while a Renault-Nissan platform could be the basis for a future Mitsubishi electric car.

Meanwhile, BMW’s electric car fleet passed 100,000 total sales three years after it began production.