Chevy Volt Sales Inch Out Nissan Leaf Sales In 2013

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Originally published on EV Obsession.

Chevy Volt. Credit: GM
Chevy Volt. Credit: GM

After 6 changes at the top of the plug-in car tables in 2013, the Chevy Volt barely beat the Nissan Leaf in annual sales. The Volt logged 23,094, while the Leaf logged 22,610.

Despite many other big EV stories this year, that neck-and-neck race at the top of the sales charts still stood out to me as one of the EV stories of the year. Of course, the sales weren’t only dependent on demand. The Nissan Leaf has been undersupplied across the country for about 6 months. Production is finally supposed to be getting up to demand right about now, and that may be one reason why December was the best sales month for the Leaf.

This has been a fun race to watch and write about, but I think there’s also a hidden story to this story. Some of the other top EVs for the price are sold in very limited markets. The Fiat 500e, which was the “Best Electric Car of 2013” according to Road & Track, gets no love from its maker — which seems to be headed up by an EV hater — and is sold in extremely limited quantities. The Chevy Spark EV, which is considered to be much better than its gasmobile cousin and has gotten rave reviews, is only available in a few markets.

Aside from the top two, btw, the Tesla Model S clearly came in at #3 with about 18,000 units sold, and the Toyota Prius Plug-in came in at #4 at 12,088. I’m still waiting for Ford’s numbers to come in, but these are clearly the top 4 plug-in cars in terms of 2013 US sales:

  1. Chevy Volt — 23,094
  2. Nissan Leaf — 22,610
  3. Tesla Model S — ~18,000
  4. Toyota Prius Plug-in — 12,088

Also see:

13 New Electric Vehicles For Sale In 2014

11 Electric Cars That Cost Less Than The Average New Car In The US


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Zachary Shahan

Zach is tryin' to help society help itself one word at a time. He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as its director, chief editor, and CEO. Zach is recognized globally as an electric vehicle, solar energy, and energy storage expert. He has presented about cleantech at conferences in India, the UAE, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, the USA, Canada, and Curaçao. Zach has long-term investments in Tesla [TSLA], NIO [NIO], Xpeng [XPEV], Ford [F], ChargePoint [CHPT], Amazon [AMZN], Piedmont Lithium [PLL], Lithium Americas [LAC], Albemarle Corporation [ALB], Nouveau Monde Graphite [NMGRF], Talon Metals [TLOFF], Arclight Clean Transition Corp [ACTC], and Starbucks [SBUX]. But he does not offer (explicitly or implicitly) investment advice of any sort.

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