Which Will Be The 1st EV Model To Break Into The Top 10 Of Global Auto Sales? (Poll)
Last year, the Toyota Prius became the 3rd-highest-selling automobile of any type around the world. Of course, when the car first hit the market, there was plenty of anti-hybrid talk and claims that it would never sell and would soon be off the market. Obviously, those critics were way off. The same thing is happening today with plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs), and especially with 100% electric vehicles. Ironically, the anti-PEV push seems to be stronger than the anti-hybrid push was, even while early PEV sales crush early hybrid sales. (I imagine this intense criticism is due to the fact that switching to plug-in EVs is in numerous ways a much bigger shift than switching to conventional hybrids — for individuals and for society as a whole.)
Just the other day, I shared news that PEV Sales have doubled in 2013 compared to 2012. At that time, I also shared this Department of Energy (DOE) quotation:
“The latest numbers also show how the early years of the PEV market have seen much faster growth than the early years of the hybrid vehicle market. Thirty months after the first hybrid was introduced, monthly sales figures were under 3,000.
“By comparison, PEVs – which were first introduced in December 2010 – report nearly 9,000 cars sold in the last month.”
Yet, I neglected to share this awesome graph from the DOE:
Clearly, PEVs are going somewhere. Michael Graham Richard of TreeHugger notes: “Not only are sales much stronger at the equivalent time after introduction… but the trajectory of growth is also much steeper, a good sign.” Indeed!
This immediately brings to mind this graph showing the exponential growth curve of adoption of various technologies.
Yes, if history tells us anything, I think it tells us that PEV sales could indeed skyrocket within a few years (especially with battery prices dropping so fast and EVs already competing so well with gasmobiles when it comes to consumer cost). So, the one of the questions that comes to my mind is, which PEV will be first to break into the top 10 of global auto sales?
I was meeting with a long-time CleanTechnica reader and commenter in Ireland this week. One thing that he suggested in our conversations was that we conduct more polls here on CleanTechnica. Polls are fun. Conducting more reader polls has long been on my list of things I’d like to do to enhance the site. This seems like as opportune a time as any to start doing so. Below is a fresh CleanTechnica poll for the question posed above. Give us your vote! (If it helps you, check out my most recent US PEV sales update.)
If you would like more info on any of these cars, here are some resources for you:
- BMW i3
- Chevy Spark EV
- Chevy Volt
- Fiat 500e
- Ford C-Max Energi
- Ford Fusion Energi
- Nissan Leaf
- Tesla Model “C”
- Tesla Model S
- Toyota Prius PHEV
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