sales

China represents a huge, and growing, market for new car sales. But when it comes to choosing greener cars, the country lags far behind the U.S., with electric and plug-in hybrid vehicle sales lower than those of many individual states, let alone the whole country. The China Association of...

Early adopters, ecology-minded citizens and, increasingly, drivers who want very low running costs are now buying plug-in electric cars. That much we know. But many have reported frustrations at the dealership, from a lack of interest to salespeople who actively steer them away from electrics...

The stories abound: A car buyer walks into a dealership, educated about the electric car she wants to buy...and the salesperson tries to convince her she doesn't want that car after all. She really wants a gasoline car, he argues. MORE: Why Some Dealers Are Inept At Selling Plug-In Electric Cars...

The new year started out positively for Canadian electric-vehicle advocates, as government registration data showed Canadian plug-in electric vehicle sales topped 3,100 vehicles last year, representing a 58-percent increase over 2012. MORE: Plug-In Electric Car Sales In Canada In 2013: Up 50...

Car sharing is more popular than many have previously estimated, the study's authors say.

In the first month of 2014, sales of the two most popular plug-in electric cars were lower than they've been in many months. Sales levels likely fell victim both to the predictable winter slowdown in electric-car sales (which we saw in 2012 and 2013 too) and to particularly bad weather last month...

Car production data may cause some eyes to glaze over, but the numbers are closely followed in the auto industry. Electric-car maker Tesla Motors doesn't report its exact sales, nor its precise production, so a cottage industry has sprung up to track its alleged production. MORE: Tesla's Next...

It almost goes without saying, but Toyota loves its hybrids--and, seemingly, so do the world's car buyers. The Japanese automaker said it had sold 6,072,000 hybrids as of December 31, 2013, breaking the 6 million-unit barrier. MORE: Toyota Sells 23 Hybrids Globally; How Many Can You Name? A...

Plug-in electric vehicle sales in Canada rose by half in 2013, with sales poised to top 3,000 units once end-of-year vehicle registration data arrives. This is a year-over-year improvement of more than 50 percent on 2012's total Canadian sales of plug-in cars, helping their share of new-car sales...

Last year, the 96,000 plug-in electric cars sold in the U.S. represented a bit more than half a percent of the total market of 16.5 million vehicles. Market share is a good statistic: It's useful, and easy to track. But we need to piece together the relationships between vehicle price, type, and...

Sometimes the media don't quite know what they're talking about. And so it was with a story that had actress Anne Hathaway importing one of the first 2014 BMW i3 electric cars from Germany for her husband because she didn't want to wait for it to go on sale in the U.S. next spring. The story, which...

With legislation defeated, Ohio car dealers are turning to the courts to block Tesla's company-owned stores.

As the year winds toward a close, U.S. car sales are at their highest levels in years. And modern plug-in electric cars will set a new sales record too. With one month left, November deliveries of cars with plugs looked like they'll hold steady with last month's--but as the final numbers came in...

GM sold an excellent 133 Chevrolet Volts in November, more than doubling October's 62 sales, and bringing monthly sales into triple figures for the second time this year, behind June's 153 deliveries. While we'll have to wait for vehicle registration data, the Volt may have made up more than half...

It's pretty clear that many car buyers are very interested in electric cars, and that they love them when they drive them. Electric cars have a handful of natural advantages that offset their higher purchase cost: They cost far less per mile than gasoline cars, and they're simply nicer to drive...

Ford plug-in hybrids may be shifting the sales balance away from battery-electric cars.

In October sales of plug-in electric cars, both Chevy and Nissan improved on their September results, but didn't come close to beating their record August sales numbers. The month as a whole rebounded toward August's record-breaking level, improving on September's slump--but the Tesla sales may...

For the second month in a row, the best-selling car in Norway is powered by electricity.

The Chevrolet Volt and Tesla Model S were probably neck-and-neck in Canadian plug-in sales, in September In August, the Chevy Volt won the sales podium by an 84-56 margin over the Nissan Leaf. Government records showed 55 new Tesla Model S registrations, leaving the California automaker in a close...

After a record-setting month in August, plug-in electric car sales moderated in September while the overall U.S. vehicle market surged. The Chevrolet Volt, the best-selling plug-in car after almost three years, registered 1,766 deliveries--little more than half the record-setting number of 3,351...