US Electrified Car Sales Update (April Sales)

May 7th, 2014 by Zachary Shahan

Originally published on EV Obsession.

Apologies for the late monthly sales report. I was delayed by my visit to the UAE for Abu Dhabi Ascent. Nonetheless, here are the numbers:

The Nissan LEAF was the #1 top-selling plug-in car in the US in April again, making that the third month in a row that the LEAF was #1 … if my estimate for January Tesla Model S sales was correct and it beat the LEAF by a mere 15.

Quite surprisingly, the #2 plug-in car in April was the Toyota Prius Plug-in, beating out the Chevy Volt (#3) and my estimate for the Tesla Model S (#4), which is based on general statements from Tesla regarding its weekly manufacturing capacity and how deliveries are being split between the US and Europe.

The Ford Fusion Energi and Ford C-Max Energi were the only other plug-in cars with very notable sales in April. If grouped together, their sales were 1 car higher than my estimate for Tesla.

Overall, 100% electric car sales were actually a bit lower in April 2014 than April 2013 (2.55% lower), but plug-in hybrid electric car sales were up 72.5%, making all plug-in car sales 27.91% higher than in April 2013. For the year to date, 100% electric has increased 71.3% and plug-in hybrids 36.82%, resulting in an overall plug-in car sales increase of 20.72%.

The BMW i3 is now being delivered, so we’ll see how far up the list it lands to start things off.

Here are static images of the charts above:

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Tags: cadillac, Cadillac ELR, chevy spark, chevy spark ev, Chevy Volt, EV sales, Ford, Ford C-MAX, Ford C-MAX Energi, ford focus, ford focus electric, ford fusion, Honda, Honda Accord, Honda Accord Plug-In, Honda FCX Clarity, Honda Fit, honda fit ev, Mitsubishi, mitsubishi i, Nissan, Nissan Leaf, Porsche, Porsche Panamera S E-Hybrid, Smart Electric Drive, Tesla Model S, Tesla Motors, Toyota, toyota prius, toyota prius plug in, Toyota Rav4, Toyota RAV4 EV

About the Author

Zachary Shahan is tryin' to help society help itself (and other species) one letter at a time. He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as its director and chief editor. Otherwise, he's probably enthusiastically fulfilling his duties as the director/editor of EV Obsession, Gas2, Solar Love, Planetsave, or Bikocity; or as president of Important Media. Zach is recognized globally as a solar energy, electric car, energy storage, and wind energy expert. If you would like him to speak at a related conference or event, connect with him via social media: ZacharyShahan.com. Zach has long-term investments in TSLA, SCTY, FSLR, SPWR, SEDG, & ABB. After years of covering solar and EVs, he simply has a lot of faith in these companies and feels like they are good companies to invest in.

Otis11

Any chance on getting what % of cars sold EVs/Plug in hybrids make up in these reports? Would be interesting to see the trend…
Tony Reyes

After nearly 3k miles on my Volt, I continue to be impressed and amazed. I’m surprised with somewhat tepid sales. How much of that is due to limited production and availability? Locally, my dealer claims they only see one every couple of months and it is sold before it hits the showroom floor.
- Zachary Shahan
  
  hmm, i thought they had gotten their supply bottleneck worked out by now. if not, think that’s been an issue for well over a year now.
mike_dyke

Can someone post a link to the UK version of these graphs?
I must have missed it.
- Zachary Shahan
  
  unfortunately, i can’t get full data for the UK…
LookingForward

Over 20% growth in the first 4 months, compaired to last years first 4 months!
But if anual car sales in the US are 1 million (probably more) it’s still only a gain of 5.3% to 6.5%, but just like solar they will get there and start dominating more and more!
Others

BMW i3 has gone on sale, so we can see some boost in EV sales. Soon Benz B Class and Mitsubishi i-MIEV is coming in and this is all good.

Soon’s EVs may compete with Hybrids given the slow growth in Hybrids and fast growth in EVs.
- Zachary Shahan
  
  do you know when the next version of the i-MiEV comes out? i thought it was supposed to be on the market by now.
spec9

Solar PV plus an EV is such a great combo. No gasoline bills and no electricity bills. 🙂
- Jouni Valkonen
  
  indeed! electric cars are perhaps the most important single part in the solar energy revolution as they are fine with the intermittency of solar power.
  
  I would say indeed the most important, as solar panels as such are already cheap enough. Most of the current high costs of solar are from installation and grid integration. But first one is not economic problem, as installing roof-top solar panels creates local jobs, therefore wealth is not removed from the local society. And the electric cars will make the grid integration of solar MUCH cheaper.