Japan Toyota is encouraging Prius Prime drivers to drive as efficiently as possible. Toyota is offering immediate incentives — actual financial incentives — to more efficient drivers.
US electric car sales continue to climb to new heights in 2017. Growing 59% year over year (YoY), approximately 12,000 electric cars were sold across the country in January, accounting for approximately 1% of US auto sales. The top five models accounted for approximately 40% of total US electric car sales, as most models are still compliance cars that are not designed or marketed to really pull in buyers — and aren’t even available in most states.
Going into 2017, I wanted to test drive some of the new plug-in hybrids hitting the market. Unfortunately, I found the newest plug-in hybrid EVs (with the exception of the 2017 Chevy Volt) difficult if not impossible to find in my area (in a populous part of Florida, which is ranked 5th for EV sales in the US).
After a disappointing call to the Toyota dealership closest to me (no luck), I called around to find that I would have to drive quite a distance to have a first-hand look at a Prius Prime.
How many electric vehicles will be sold in the US during 2016? Will Chevy Bolt EV sales grow rapidly following nationwide availability in the late summer? What about Toyota Prius Prime sales (if Toyota ever works out the dealership issues)? What will happen with the Tesla Model 3? Will it launch on time? Will mass production begin this year, or not truly until 2018?
Despite earlier assumptions that the new plug-in electric Toyota Prius Prime would be available nationwide, there have been numerous reports in recent days that those outside of California are having trouble ordering one. And even sometimes that these would-be-buyers are being told that the model won’t be sold outside of California.
2017 is shaping up to be the year that the affordable EV goes big, with the much anticipated Chevy Bolt and the updated Renault Zoe (with its breakthrough 400 km range) rolling out en masse, as well as the competitive and perhaps widely available Hyundai IONIQ, Toyota Prius Prime, and Chrysler Pacific Hybrid (PHEV). And that’s not even mentioning what is due in the second half of 2017 (hint: Tesla Model 3).
CleanTechnica reader “No way” had a great suggestion last week — poll the community on 2017 Tesla production and delivery predictions. We actually did this last year, but I forgot to check on the numbers until Karl Graves emailed them over. A few of us were quite close to nailing the 2016 total. However, I think we didn’t carefully consider production versus delivery figures, so we are clearly separating those this year.
US electric car sales had another record month in December, and again reached a record market share in the country. Fully electric and plug-in hybrid electric car sales reached 19,133 in December (and 144,455 sales for 2016 as a whole), which put EV market share among all passenger cars at a record 1.13% (and 0.82% for 2016 as a whole).
To supplement my article published earlier today regarding the 20 fully electric car models that are currently for sale in Europe and/or North America, here’s another one on the 23 plug-in hybrids that are currently on the market in these places.
In case you missed the initial announcement, be sure to get in your vote for the 2017 CleanTechnica Car of the Year!
