New car sales
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After a slow month in April, sales of the Nissan Leaf came roaring back in May. Nissan sold 1,576 Leafs in May, up from 1,171 the month before. The Leaf also had a record month in Canada, selling 906 units north of the border. It is worth noting that this achievement was accomplished with the redesigned Leaf's 151-mile battery. A 220-mile battery is still due out later this year, which will increase the car's functionality but boost its price too. READ THIS: Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn: 188 miles is enough for electric cars; now prices must be cut Sales of the BMW i3 continued their slide from...
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Plug-in electric car sales in Canada, March 2018: Prius Prime rivals Volt
The Chevy Volt won its umpteenth monthly plug-in sales title in Canada last month, but soaring sales of other models were the big story in the Canuck electric vehicle market—which may have reached 1.75 percent of the market in March. The Volt tallied 555 March sales, Canada’s...
Matthew Klippenstein -
Plug-in electric car sales for March: Prius Prime romps, monthly data an endangered species? (update)
The monthly report on sales of plug-in electric cars may well have come to a close this month. General Motors, makers of the Chevrolet Bolt EV and Volt, said it will only release sales figures quarterly starting after its Tuesday release of deliveries for the month of March. Interestingly, the...
John Voelcker -
Tesla sales: how much do rebates matter to buyers in Canada?
The government of Ontario amended its plug-in electric vehicle incentive program in March, eliminating incentives for vehicles with a recommended price of $75,000 or more. What effect will this have on demand for Tesla’s Model S and X? Two years ago, this site analyzed the impacts on...
Matthew Klippenstein -
Plug-in electric car sales in Feb better than Jan lows, winter doldrums not so bad (final update)
Sales of plug-in electric cars tend to be lower during the winter months, unlike the rest of the market, and February was little exception to that rule, though not as bad as it could have been. After a whiz-bang December that took 2017 sales to their highest-ever number—just under 200,000...
John Voelcker -
In what segments will electric cars do best by 2025? Twitter poll results
As U.S. car buyers increasingly opt for crossover utility vehicles of all sizes over passenger sedans and hatchbacks, that shift has come to pose a problem for electric cars. The bulk of battery-electric models on offer today are compact five-door hatchbacks without available all-wheel drive. Think...
John Voelcker -
Cumulative Canadian plug-in electric vehicle sales surpassed 50,000 units in February, aided by the second-generation 2018 Nissan Leaf, which sold 179 units in its “rookie” month. Unfortunately for the world’s best-selling plug-in electric vehicle (and third-best in Canada), its tally was beaten by both the Volkswagen e-Golf and the Chevrolet Bolt EV, which notched 180 units apiece. The e-Golf enjoyed its best-ever monthly sales, more than doubling January’s 87 units, and far surpassing its prior best of 128, set last November. DON'T MISS: U.S. plug-in electric car...
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For six months, one in five Prius sales has been a plug-in hybrid
A funny thing happened to Toyota Prius hybrid sales last month. Almost one in three Prius hybrids sold in the U.S. were the Prius Prime model—the one with a plug. Toyota may be the large automaker least friendly to cars that plug in, so what's that all about? DON'T MISS: Toyota Prius hybrid...
John Voelcker -
Tesla expects 200,000th U.S. sale this year, electric-car tax credits to start phaseout
It's been a topic of discussion for years: What will happen when a carmaker reaches the cap on U.S. sales of electric cars that qualify for the full federal tax credit of $7,500? That number is 200,000; after the rest of that calendar quarter and the one following, the credit is halved for a...
John Voelcker -
Toyota Prius hybrid sales have tanked: here are 4 reasons why
The Toyota Prius hybrid has been its maker's "halo car" and an example of its most advanced technology for two decades. Launched from an early-1990s project to halve the fuel consumption of a small car, its hybrid-electric powertrain pioneered mass electrification of passenger cars. But the sales...
John Voelcker -
Plug-in electric car sales in Canada for Jan: Outlander has landed (plus 2017 analysis)
The Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV helped the Canadian plug-in electric vehicle market to its first 1,000-unit January last month. The company sold 174 of its plug-in hybrid SUV in its first full month on sale, representing about 30 percent of overall Outlander sales. If that ratio holds, the Outlander...
Matthew Klippenstein -
Plug-in electric car sales fall in Jan after year-end surge (further update)
While 2017 saw higher U.S. sales of plug-in electric cars than any previous year, expectations for 2018 sales are running even higher. The Chevrolet Bolt EV will be available in all 50 states for a full year, the new 2018 Nissan Leaf with a 151-mile range is now on sale, and of course the Tesla...
John Voelcker -
Compared to previous years, overall car-sales growth in the U.S. has all but plateaued at around 17.5 million. China is doing little better, with growth reaching just 3 percent for 2017. But the Chinese new-vehicle market is undergoing a seismic shift in which types of cars are sold. Want proof? China sold 777,000 new-energy vehicles—electrics and plug-in hybrids—in 2017, a whopping 53-percent increase over 2016. READ MORE: Plug-in electric car sales in Dec: 2017 set new record, Bolt EV ends strong The massive growth in plug-in vehicle sales can be attributed to government...
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Sales-weighted new-car fuel economy stuck at 25 mpg, for fourth year in a row
Even as vehicles become more fuel-efficient, the unending market shift toward crossover utilities, SUVs, and trucks kept the overall average U.S. new fleet efficiency stagnant for the fourth year in a row. For 2017, sales-weighted new-car fuel economy landed at 25.2 mpg, an improvement over 2016 of...
Mark Stevenson -
Half of all new cars sold in Norway last year are electric or hybrid, as diesel ebbs fast
Norway was one of the earliest nations to set a coherent and broad-based national plan to cut its carbon emissions, and then stick to it. For road transport, it plans to phase out sales of cars with internal-combustion engines by 2025 using a variety of carrots (financial incentives and special...
John Voelcker -
Plug-in electric car sales in Canada for 2017: two Dec debuts before ZEV rules
Plug-in electric vehicles topped 1 percent of Canadian new-car sales in the second half of 2017, but will fall just short of that milestone for the full year. They’ll probably end around 0.95 percent when final registration data arrives, easily surpassing their 0.57-percent market share of...
Matthew Klippenstein -
Plug-in electric car sales in Dec: 2017 set new record, Bolt EV ends strong (final update)
It was clear late last year that the number of plug-in electric cars sold in the U.S. during 2017 would set a new record. December is always a strong sales month for all vehicles, and dealerships across the country have rushed to deliver new cars, crossovers, and trucks to hit their year-end...
John Voelcker -
Tesla delivers 1,550 Model 3s in Q4; Models S, X over 100,000 in 2017
Tesla reported its fourth-quarter global deliveries on Wednesday, saying it delivered 1,550 Model 3 electric cars between October 1 and December 31 last year, but built 2,425 over the same period. That compares to a total of 260 Model 3s delivered in the third quarter, after a splashy "handover...
John Voelcker -
Lists, news roundups, and general reflections are the usual order of business as a calendar year comes to a close. We've published more than 1,600 green-car news stories so far during 2017, and it's proven to be quite a year. In the car market at large, the most notable trend was a continued move toward utility vehicles of all sizes as passenger sedans and hatchbacks lagged in popularity. DON'T MISS: Tesla Model 3: impressions of a BMW i3 driver (and reservation holder) In the U.S., that's largely due to continued cheap gasoline prices and the higher fuel efficiency of all types of new...
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BMW sold 100,000 plug-in cars this year: more than GM, probably Nissan too (Tesla TBD)
You have to hand it to BMW. When the German automaker set out to eclipse last year's sales of plug-in cars by delivering 100,000 electrified vehicles globally this year, it was an ambitious goal. But as of the end of November, the automaker has achieved its goal—and in so doing has sold...
Mark Stevenson -
European electric and plug-in hybrid sales for Jan-Oct 2017
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...
Mark Stevenson -
Plug-in electric car sales in Canada, Nov 2017: the vaulting Chevy Volt
A record 582 Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrids were sold in Canada last month, two months after Chevy delivered a then-record 483 Volts in September. The achievement is even more impressive considering Canadian car sales dropped by 15 percent between the two months, as the industry enters its slow...
Matthew Klippenstein -
Plug-in electric car sales for Nov: Volt vs Prime neck-and-neck, Bolt EV just misses 3K (updated)
Chevy didn't quite pull it off in November, but it could well happen this month in a burst of end-of-year sales. In this case, "it" would be selling 3,000 Chevrolet Bolt EV electric cars in a single month: the delivery total reported last month was 2,987. That brings year-to-date Bolt EV sales to...
John Voelcker -
Will Toyota Prius Prime outsell Chevy Volt this year?
Compared to the U.S. sales of, say, full-size pickup trucks, the monthly reports on deliveries of plug-in hybrid and battery-electric cars contain some fairly low numbers. The Ford F-Series routinely sells 80,000 a month or more, while the most any plug-in car has ever sold in the U.S. is about...
John Voelcker