The Chevrolet Bolt is an impressive car and in several ways a breakthrough electric vehicle (EV). So why aren’t Bolts flying off dealer lots and shattering EV sales records as many industry observers had expected?
The European EV market had 29,000 registrations in March, up 30% over the same month last year, making it the third best month ever, only behind the incentive-inflated Decembers of 2015 (34,000) and 2016 (30,000). At this pace, the European EV market is set to reach the 300,000 units milestone by year end. Furthermore the EV market share now coasts at a record 1.5%.
Once upon a time, there was an epic monthly sales battle in the US between the Nissan LEAF and the Chevy Volt. They were neck and neck for ages, sometimes changing places several months in a row. Nowadays, the market is growing, and more relevant is probably looking at the Chevy Bolt, Chevy Volt, Ford Energi models, Nissan LEAF, Toyota Prius Prime, and maybe BMW i3. The cars are in a similar price range and class, but each offers a unique mix of features and style. Importantly, they are also the models that are available “nationwide.”
Our friends over at EV Volumes — a Silver Sponsor of our upcoming Cleantech Revolution Tour conference in Berlin+Wroclaw — recently shared some interesting state-specific electric car sales data with us. The most notable finding is clear enough in the following chart:
CleanTechnica surveyed over 2,000 electric car drivers in 26 European countries, 49 of 50 US states, and 9 Canadian provinces to find out what early electric car adopters require and desire from their next electric cars and from EV charging networks. Basically, we asked questions we were very eager to see answers to.
The good news today is all of my regular EV charging spots were filled with other Nissan Leafs. I’m used to seeing Teslas and Chevy Volts. Of late, I spotted a few more Leafs. People do love the airy, comfortable Leaf. There’s more good news if you own a Nissan Leaf — your used Leaf is appreciating. According to Torque News, “It might be the only car in history whose price isn’t depreciating but appreciating.”
The Chinese market had more than 32,000 new electric cars zooming the streets last month, an 89% increase over the same month last year, with the annual growth rate now at 31%. The EV market share is firmly above the 1% barrier, at around 1.4%. As the year proceeds and sales expand, expect market share to rise above last year’s result (1.45%), maybe reaching north of 2% share, something the US is yet to do.
Most popular CleanTechnica stories of the past week or so? Want to see how they rank? Well, we’re actually going back to April 1 since we skipped the first few days of the month, so below are the 30 most popular stories of the first ⅓ of the month. Enjoy!
Aside from Tesla topping the US electric car sales chart (and my postulations about that), there were some other interesting stats and takeaways from March US electric car sales.
Rolling through another month of US electric car sales, I’m struck again by how much a few models dominate sales. Actually, I’m struck by how much Tesla’s two high-end (expensive) cars dominate US electric car sales. Before I go further, I should note that Tesla’s sales numbers are not official — … [continued]
