June 2018 Sales Numbers: Tesla is first to 200K! (**UPDATED**)

Honda Clarity plug-in sales figures have not been announced yet, but the show must go on…

Based on multiple sources in the EV blogosphere, the race to 200,000 plug-in vehicles in the U.S. has been won by Tesla Motors! General Motors had been in the lead, until March of this year, when Tesla’s cumulative total exceeded GM’s for the first time. Since then, the throttling down of U.S. sales by GM has allowed Tesla to pull further ahead each month. I have been wondering if this was intentional, on GM’s part, to extend their access to the $7,500 Federal Income Tax credit past Tesla’s. An article published on The Motley Fool website showed that the slowdown in U.S. sales may be attributable to diversion of Bolt EVs to South Korea, where the Bolt EV is a hot item. Regardless of the cause, if the preliminary numbers are correct, this means that Tesla buyers will lose access to the full $7,500 tax credit at the end of December 2018 (as it appears the 200,000th sale took place shortly after the end of June), when it will be cut in half, as part of the government’s phase-out plan. But perhaps this is premature. Here’s another reason worrying about the tax credit may be premature… In either case, Elon Musk’s “open sourcing” of Tesla’s patents shows a person more focused in moving the transition to electric transportation forward than a traditional businessperson, whose only motivation is profit.

Stay tuned for further developments…My dealership’s plug-in vehicle inventory is almost gone. We have one Volt remaining and zero Bolt EV’s (much to my dismay). Within a 250 mile radius of my dealership, there is only one 2017 Bolt EV (down from eight last month) and ZERO 2017 Volts. Within that same area, there are only fifteen 2018 Bolt EVs (down from twenty-nine last month) and thirty-seven 2018 Volts (slightly down from thirty-eight last month). That’s twenty-one Bolt EVs sold versus one Volt. I continue to be unable to order new Bolt EVs. 

In June 2018, the plug-in vehicle sales I track were down, except for the Tesla Model S & Model X and the BMW i3. The Tesla Model 3 dropped slightly, but still was an historically outstanding performer, with 6,062 sold in June. (notice the high purple line, in the chart below)In the lower chart (above), sales of the Model 3, now have a slope similar to the original Prius after it had been on the market fifty-seven months! I realize this is just over a few months, but it is an impressive trend, worth watching. The newer, plug-in Prius continues to track at an adoption rate slightly superior to the Volt, Model S and Leaf, although why still eludes me. In the chart below, we see the Bolt EV adoption curve, starting to track at a lower growth rate, similar to the Model S and Volt adoption curves. This is not due to a lack of consumer interest, but rather a lack of inventory at dealerships.

Here are the June 2018 sales figures, compared to the previous month:

• Chevy Volt: DOWN 20% (1,336 vs. 1,675) **estimated
• Chevy Bolt EV: DOWN 4% (1,083 vs. 1,125) **estimated
• Nissan Leaf: DOWN 13% (1,367 vs. 1,576)
• Plug-in Toyota Prius: DOWN 12% (2,237 vs. 2,924)
• Tesla Model S: UP 81% (2,750 vs. 1,520) **estimated
• Tesla Model X: UP 76% (2,550 vs. 1,450) **estimated
• BMW i3: UP 37% (580 vs. 424)
• Ford Fusion Energi: DOWN 18% (604 vs. 740)
• Honda Clarity BEV & PHEV: ??????? (not announced)
• Tesla Model 3: DOWN 3% (6,062 vs. 6,250)

In June, the average price of gasoline fell steadily, from $2.96 per gallon, at the start of the month, to $2.84 on the 24th, followed by a very gradual rise through the end of the month to $2.85 per gallon. That’s a 4% decrease, after two months of increasing prices. The June drop only wiped out about half the increase, over the previous two months.

My vehicle sales, in June 2018, was terrible for June. It was one unit higher than my worst June ever, back in 2014. The month started very well, with six sales in the first half of the month, but I only had one more sale for the entire month, coming in the final week.My seven June 2018 sales were comprised of four Bolt EVs, an Impala, a Cruze and (thankfully) a Z06 Corvette Stingray. My one year of Bolt EV sales are, only one unit behind my Silverado 1500 sales, which were obtained over my entire 4 year and 9 month auto sales career! By vehicle type, my lifetime sales are: 32% plug-ins, 19% SUVs, 17% pickups, 15% sports cars. The rest are sedans & vans (17%). The amazing thing though, is that my plug-in sales, for the last full year, are at 65% of my total vehicle sales!In the chart below, the purple bars (2018 plug-in sales), when compared to the red bars just below them, showed strong plug-in sales. In April, things seemed back to average. In May 2017, I had no plug-in vehicle sales, but May 2018 was at least twice any previous year’s total. In June, with only five Bolt EVs in stock, sales were down by one-third.Plug-in sales, compared to the same month a year ago, were split. The winners were the Tesla Model S and Model X, the Prius plug-in and (barely) the BMW i3:

• Chevy Volt: DOWN 23% (1,336 vs. 1,745)
• Chevy Bolt EV: DOWN 34% (1,083 vs. 1,642) **not available nationwide in June 2017
• Nissan Leaf: DOWN 9% (1,367 vs. 1,506)
• Plug-in Toyota Prius: UP 38% (2,237 vs. 1,619)
• Tesla Model S: UP 17% (2,750 vs. 2,350)
• Tesla Model X: UP 16% (2,550 vs. 2,200)
• BMW i3: UP 2% (580 vs. 567)
• Ford Fusion Energi: DOWN 15% (604 vs. 707)
• Honda Clarity BEV & PHEV: (was not available in June 2017)
• Tesla Model 3: (was not available in June 2017)

On a final note, a comment on Facebook asked me to comment on where I obtain my sales figures. I use several sources, including InsideEVs, GoodCarBadCar, CarSalesBase and hybridCars.