In April 2015, the Nissan Leaf outsold all the vehicles I track, even though it had lower sales this month, compared to the previous month. The Ford C-Max Energi really had a jump in sales last month.
Overall, April’s sales looked like this:
- Chevy Volt: UP 42% (905 vs. 639)
- Nissan Leaf: DOWN 15% (1,553 vs. 1,817)
- Plug-in Toyota Prius: DOWN 10% (428 vs. 473)
- Cadillac ELR: UP 13% (104 vs. 92)
- BMW i3: DOWN 56% (406 vs. 922)
- BMW i8: DOWN 3% (138 vs. 143)
- Ford Fusion Energi: DOWN 15% (711 vs. 837)
- Ford C-Max Energi: DOWN 23% (
1,237553 vs. 715 – originally wrong sales volume was reported)
The price of gasoline continued to rise (albeit at a slower rate), for another month, from an average of $2.43 in January to $2.50 in March (a 3% increase). Looking at the top graph below, it seems to me that the end-of-year specials drove business on plug-in vehicles even though the price of gasoline was dropping precipitously. Immediately after the end of last year, sales plummeted, probably due to the combination of the lowest price for gasoline seen in the last four years as well as the end of year-end incentives. The Volt’s sales continue to taper off, as the newly redesigned 2016 model will be out later this year. This is evidenced by the widening gap between the Leaf’s and Volt’s sales. The Toyota Prius plug-in is really showing signs of fading away, which I’ve been expecting. For both of the Fords I track, I have some good news and some bad news: First, the good news: The C-Max Energi and the Fusion Energi are tracking in the bottom graph, in a path similar to the historic adoption track of the Volt. The bad news: This portion of the Volt’s adoption curve was during a focused attack on the Volt by conservative media and politicians. This does not bode well for the Fords. The BMW i3 suffered a large 56% drop in sales, compared to the previous month. There are very aggressive lease deals available on the i3, and when combined with the reviews on the i3 and the panache of the BMW name, I am not sure what’s up with that…
Sales, compared to the same month a year ago, looked like this:
- Chevy Volt: DOWN 42% (905 vs. 1,548)
- Nissan Leaf: DOWN 26% (1,553 vs. 2,088)
- Plug-in Toyota Prius: DOWN 75% (428 vs. 1,741)
- Cadillac ELR: UP 70% (104 vs. 61) **Don’t get too excited: very small numbers.
- BMW i3: (did not exist a year ago) **One more month to go!
- BMW i8: (did not exist a year ago)
- Ford Fusion Energi: DOWN 4% (711 vs. 779)
- Ford C-Max Energi: UP 5% (
1237553 vs. 525)
I wonder if the Chevy Spark and the Fiat 500e will be sold nationwide in the foreseeable future. There seems to be strong interest in these vehicles.
No plans to roll them out nationwide as far as I’ve heard.
Buzz, during April Chevrolet sold more SparkEVs (920) than Volts (905), so you may want to track that as well. Combining these two models, Chevrolet sold more plug-in vehicles than any other manufacturer including Tesla and Nissan. The initial Ford C-Max numbers were incorrect – they are actually 553. Expect lower SparkEV sales due to lower inventory (for example, I am now sold out).
PS. It looks like Maryland will be the next state for the SparkEV. Slowly but surely. . .
The $7500 Federal tax credit needs to be reformed to be a rebate so people of lesser means can take advantage of it. In addition, there should be another Cash for Clunkers program to get the worst ICE vehicles off the road. A small percentage of the vehicles account for most of the air pollution, and they need to go now.