Half of this year is now gone, which means it's time once again to look at sales of plug-in electric cars--both for June and for the first six months of 2012.

Coming off a streak of low sales months, 535 Nissan Leafs were sold in June, less than one-third the 1,708 Leafs delivered in June 2011.

This means that 3,148 Leafs have been sold in the first half of 2012, fewer than for the same six-month period in 2011, by which time 3,875 Leafs had been delivered.

The continuing low numbers for 2012 make it seem challenging indeed for Nissan to meet its stated goal of selling 20,000 Leafs in the U.S. this year.

Last month, however, a Nissan executive modified the claim to say that would be 20,000 Leafs by the end of the 2012 fiscal year--which extends through March 2013.

Continuing recently stronger sales compared to last year, 1,760 Chevrolet Volt range-extended electric cars were delivered last month.

That brings the Volt sales total through June to 8.817, making it likely that Chevy will more than double its 2011 sales total of 7,671 (which was shy of the 10,000 ebullient GM executives had predicted before the car launched).

The June totals are up compared to May's sales of plug-in cars, which included 510 Leafs and 1,680 Volts.

The 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid sold 695 units in June, bringing its 2012 total to 4,333 and cementing its position as second most-popular plug-in car on sale this year.

Mitsubishi sold an additional 33 'i' electric minicars in June, and Ford has finally gotten the Focus Electric bandwagon rolling, saying it sold 89 of them in June.

Ford also noted that in 2012 to date, it has built 763 electric Focuses--many of which are likely in the pipeline to dealers now.

June saw the first retail sales of the much-anticipated 2012 Tesla Model S, but Tesla refuses to say how many cars it delivered in June, or any other month.

Struggling luxury electric-car maker Fisker also declines to provide sales numbers, as does Coda.

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