Cars and Drivers

2014 Electric Vehicle Sales a Mixed Bag

Nissan Leaf 2014
Source: Nissan North America Inc.
Annual sales of all-electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles rose by more than 20,000 units in 2014, up nearly 23%. A nice jump to be sure, but nowhere near the 85% sales increase between 2012 and 2013.

The Chevy Volt from General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) was replaced at the top of the sales leader board in 2014 by the Nissan Leaf, which sold 30,200 units, versus 18,805 for the Volt. The third best-seller was the Model S sedan from Tesla Motors Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) with an estimated 2014 sales total of 17,300. The data were published by website Inside EVs.

Sales of the Prius plug-in hybrid from Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE: TM) rose from 12,088 in 2013 to 13,264 in 2014, after posting a drop between 2012 and 2013.

Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) made it into the top five sellers of 2014 with its Fusion Energi model, which sold 11,550 units in 2014, nearly twice as many as the company sold in 2013.

In just eight sales months since its introduction, the i3 from BMW sold nearly 6,100 units, more than four times the sales of GM’s Cadillac ELR and Toyota’s RAV4 all-electric.

Electric car sales were hurt in the second half of 2014 by the collapse in crude oil and gasoline prices. December 2014 sales of nearly every model available in 2013 were lower than a year ago with one big exception: Tesla’s Model S continues to sell to the well-heeled crowd as much for its performance as for its green credentials.

The all-electric Model S, BMW i3 and Nissan Leaf led the all-electrics to a 0.5% share of the total U.S. car market for the month of December, its highest ever. All-electrics ended the year with a 0.39% share of the total U.S. market, another all-time high.

Hybrids posted their worst showing since October 2011, according HybridCars.com, with December market share of 2.2% and annual share of 2.75%.

ALSO READ: Can BMW Sell $135,000 Electric Car?

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