It is damn hot in Texas. Maybe it’s the same everywhere (relatively speaking). I hear the climate might be changing…
Anyway, perhaps it’s the heat that’s affecting sales. Gas prices have been steady, averaging the same in July that they did in June. Only the Chevrolet Volt, the Corvette, and the Nissan Leaf sales figures have been posted so far, but all show a substantial decline from the previous month. The Volt only sold 66% the volume it had in June (1,788 vs. 2,698), representing a drop of 34%. The Leaf also hit the Summer doldrums, albeit not as steep a decline as the Volt, with a drop of 16% (1,864 vs. 2,225). This placed the Leaf at a higher volume than the Volt (1,864 Leafs vs. 1,788 Volts). In third place (by volume) the Corvette showed sales of only 671 units, down 21% from the June figure (671 vs. 853). **UPDATE** The numbers for the plug-in Prius and i MiEV are in and both of these models showed an increase over the previous month! The i MiEV increased in sales 18%, but hold the phone. That’s going from 39 cars in June to 46 in July. Not a very big deal. As for the Plug-in Prius, sales increased by 40%! Admittedly the Prius is selling in more modest numbers than the Volt or Leaf so far, but after a precipitous decline at the end of 2012, it’s showing signs of life again. (the i Miev dreams of numbers like these.) In June, the Plug-in Prius sold 584 units and increased to 817 for July. While it was previously outperforming historical sales figures for the original Prius, the declines since October 2012 have the plug-in model just under where the original Prius’ total sales were, in its 17th month of existence. The Volt and Leaf were both well below the original Prius’ historical sales at 17 months due to a) Leaf battery woes in very hot and very cold climates and b) a certain conservative radio blowhard trying to whip up resistance to the Volt. In the months since, the Volt has increased sales to a point that it has been very closely tracking the historical Prius sales curve for the last 8 months (bottom graph). The Leaf sales curve has been running at a rate roughly paralleling the original Prius, albeit at a substantial deficit.
Total units sold over the model life are as follows: Chevy Volt 43,101 and Nissan Leaf 31,486. I don’t mention the Plug-in Prius or i MiEV in this, because they have been available for a much shorter time than the Volt or Leaf. For four of the last six months, the Leaf’s sales have exceeded the Volt’s. As mentioned before, this probably had to do with a price drop for the Leaf that occurred several months before GM joined in the discounting game.
Discussion topic: What do you think caused the steep drop in sales in July? Why did the Plug-in Prius do so much better? How big is the wind?
Post your theory by adding a comment to this post!
One other question for my readers: Should I stop tracking sales performance of the i Miev? If not, why not? Sadistic pleasure?
Here are the graphs:
I think there are holdouts on Volt purchasers to see what the 2014 MSRP is. It could also cause bigger discounts of the remaining 2013s. Did the LEAF sell off their pent up demand once the TN plant opened and the S version came out? PiP still surprises me. Thought CA folks would be buying it more just for the HOV lane sticker and just running on gas most of the time. No, don’t track the iMiev. Yes, to tracking the PHEV Outlander. That thing may meet some pent up demands because of its size/style/suv/cuv.
Scott, I think you’ve got something there. When I worked at Apple, we’d notice a slump in sales when the rumors of the next iPhone or iPad would get cranked up. Mentioning the next generation would be less expensive may turn out to have been a blunder. As for other EVs I’ll track, one requirement is that they not behave like a traditional hybrid. They should run purely on electricity until the battery is depleted and then switch to a different energy source (if they have one). I want to promote pollution free transportation as much as is practical.
Re: Run purely on electricity until the battery is depleted
Check out PHEV Outlander. Several videos out but it can run on pure plug in power: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HU6G-xaMssE
Thanks for keeping up on this interesting chart. How about adding newer EV’s like, Spark EV, Rav4 EV, Focus EV, C-Max Energi, Fit EV?
The source of my information doesn’t separate the Focus EV from the regular Focus. As I find Sources, I’ll add more models, but to make the charts readable, some will have to go. (I’m looking at you Corvette and i MiEV…) If you have good sources for the data on specific models, send them my way. I currently refer to Good Car Bad Car.
I see about the combined sales, too bad the EV’s aren’t all separate models like the Volt and Leaf! I agree, drop the MiEV at least. How about using Tesla’s quarterly sales report to put something from them on the chart? http://ir.teslamotors.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=752533
I’ve been thinking about the Tesla numbers a loooooong time. I’m so weird about numbers that it’ll bug me that the monthly numbers are made up as guesses from the quarterly, but I’m pretty sure I’ll cave and do it.