- Although it has become one of the electric cars the most sold in Europe, the Renault Zoe has had a much slower start than announced by the manufacturer. In 2011, Renault announced in effect a maximum production capacity of 150,000 units per year for the Zoe in the Flins plant and 90,000 units for the Kangoo ZE (30 000 units), the Fluence ZE (30 000 units) and Twizy (30 000 units). The manufacturer announced that they have set themselves a sales target of 70 000 electric vehicles  in 2012 and a target of 240 000 sales in 2015, when Carlos Ghosn thought he would be able to saturate the production capacity.

- However, in 2012 Renault had only sold 12 000 electric vehicles and in the first six months of 2013 they had only sold 6 000 units, which bodes well for a volume under 20 000 units throughout the year 2013. In terms of seasonality, the Zoeis  tracing the pace of sales of the Clio IV, but in terms of volume however the Zoe that is sold at the same price as a Clio IV (bonus deducted) achieved sales 43 times lower (6000 Zoe against 260 000 Clio IV for the period from September 2012 to August 2013).

- -Given the slow start of the Zoe, the Renault company has signed a letter of intent with Bolloré to study car sharing solutions and the establishment of an industrial and commercial cooperation in the field of electric vehicles. The agreement could help to accelerate the growth of sales of Renault electric vehicles in France and Europe.

  

- Volkswagen has announcedthatitsoldworldwide 6.2 million vehicles (passenger cars and light commercial vehicles) in the first eightmonths of 2013, an increase of 4.5% over the first eightmonths of 2012.

- The carmaker has confirmedthat the situation in Europe wouldremaindifficult in the comingmonths, but signs of stabilization are now visible.Volkswagen believesthat the automobile industryis in a more difficult situation thatitwas 10 or 20 yearsago. Indeed, the industryisfacing a fundamental shift and youngconsumers no longer maintain the samerelationshipwith cars and their usage.

- In addition, electromobilityisbecoming an important issue for all carmakers. Volkswagen thus has 100% electric versions of the Golf and Up! at Frankfurt.

- Volkswagen expects a production of 1 million vehiclesfromitsmodular MQB platform in 2013 and 2,000,000 in 2014, 3,000,000 in 2015 and 4,000,000 in 2016. By 2016, over 40 modelsshouldbeassembledfromthiscommonplatform in operationsince 2010. The first modelsbased on this architecture are the Volkswagen Golf, Audi A3, Skoda Octavia and Seat Leon. Future Volkswagen Tourans, Sportsvan Golfs, Passats, CCs, Sciroccos, Tiguans, Audi TTs, A3 Sportsvans, Skoda Superbs, Seat Alteaswillbeequippedwiththisfeature