US Electric Car Sales Hit By Wait For 2016 Chevy Volt & Long-Range LEAF?

Originally published on EV Obsession.

Unfortunately, June was a pretty poor month for US electric car sale when compared to June 2014.

Of course, most electric cars on the market are compliance cars, which means that their makers don’t try all that hard to sell them (many dealers actually try to dissuade potential buyers from buying them), come at a worse “value for the money” than top electric options, and may not even be available in large numbers from automakers due to limited production. Oh yeah, and they’re also typically just available in a few markets (mostly California). So, generally speaking, compliance car sales aren’t what move the needle when it comes to overall electric car sales.

The top models are what really influence overall sales numbers. Those models are primarily the Nissan LEAF, Tesla Model S, and Chevy Volt… but then followed by the Ford Energi models, BMW i3, and Toyota Plug-In Hybrid. Nissan has hinted that it will soon unveil a long-range affordable electric car, which could very likely be stunting Nissan LEAF sales at the moment. The hugely improved 2016 Chevy Volt is just about to come out — actually, you can start ordering it in some locations — which is surely keeping the Volt’s sales numbers low as well. For that matter, the new Volt is probably eating into Fusion Energi, BMW i3, and Toyota Plug-In Hybrid sales.

So, with these highly anticipated new models around the corner, it’s not surprising to see overall electric car sales (and especially PHEV sales) taking a hit. Luckily, the sales hit is muted a bit by Tesla’s continual production (and thus “sales”) increase. Just remember that those numbers are estimates.

Anyhow, with that long intro out of the way, here are charts and tables of June 2015 vs June 2014 (and YTD 2015 vs “YTD” 2014) electric car sales in the US: