The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Europe's October electric vehicle sales saw significant growth versus a year ago as 56 percent more battery-electric and plug-in hybrid hybrid vehicles found new homes and the Volkswagen e-Golf shot up the standings.
But, atop that growing mountain of change remains a familiar face: the Renault Zoe claimed yet another monthly victory with 2,205 sales.
nuTonomy autonomous Renault Zoe
Note: We haven't published an update to European EV and PHEV sales in a few months as our previous source went dark. Thankfully, we found a new one, but the writer reports numbers in a slightly different format. This article has been adjusted to fit that new reporting format.
#1 Renault Zoe
Renault's electric hatchback still enjoys a considerable year-to-date sales lead with a total of 26,143 units finding new homes so far in 2017.
DON'T MISS: 2017 Renault Zoe electric car: larger battery doubles range
That lead could shrink in the coming months as the Renault posted just 2,205 sales in October, narrowly edging second place.
According to Jose Pontes for CleanTechnica, Renault is still fulfilling a wait list for the car, so maybe we'll see a flurry of sales action before the end of the year instead.
2017 Volkswagen e-Golf, first drive, New York City, April 2017
#2 Volkswagen e-Golf
As it recovers from a bit of a diesel hangover, Volkswagen is pushing more and more electrified offerings as evidenced by the e-Golf almost dethroning the Zoe.
READ MORE: 2017 Volkswagen e-Golf, 125-mile electric car, starts at $31,315
For October, Volkswagen moved 2,159 units of its electric Golf—46 units shy of the Renault.
Even with this recent spike, it still lags behind in fifth place amongst full electric vehicles with 10,091 sales, but expect it to be a serious contender next year.
2018 BMW i3 and i3s
#3 BMW i3
Sales of BMW's diminutive EV have dropped in recent months, but that could be due to the rollout of its most recent facelift.
CHECK OUT: 2018 BMW i3 electric car range adds sportier i3s version
BMW earned just 1,687 sales in October, down from 2,025 units in September but up from 1,149 units in August. It currently sits in second place YTD with 16,587 sales.
Expect sales numbers to grow again once BMW builds up facelifted inventory.
2018 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, Catalina Island, CA, Sep 2017
#4 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV
Mitsubishi's rockstar, the Outlander PHEV lands itself in fourth place amongst all electrified vehicles and first in the plug-in hybrid category for October.
Sales for the large Mitsu has grown 6-percent year-over-year to 1,494 units registered for the month.
Year-to-date, the Outlander PHEV enjoys a considerable lead of nearly 5,000 units versus the next-best PHEV rival, which is...
Volkswagen Passat GTE
#5 Volkswagen Passat GTE
The plug-in hybrid variant of Volkswagen's midsize sedan has climbed its way back into the top 5 after scoring 1,244 registrations in October.
However, the Passat GTE still sits in sixth place year-to-date versus all plug-ins with just 10,787 units registered.
That places the Volkswagen immediately behind the Tesla Model S, which only sold 773 vehicles in October but has a running year-to-date tally of 11,365 sales for 2017.
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