Alternative fuel vehicles have gained a lot of traction in recent years, with sales growing steadily year after year, mostly thanks to high gas prices, increased environmental awareness, and the availability of a wider range of green car models at more affordable prices. Sales of plug-in vehicles continued to increase in 2014, despite the fact that in the past couple of months, gasoline prices reached lowest levels in over 5 years. Last year turned out to be a record-breaking year for plug-in sales, with Insideevs.com reporting that over 100,000 electric and hybrid cars were sold during the past twelve months.
Statistics show that between January 1 and December 31, 2014, a total of 119,710 plug-in cars were sold in the U.S., an increase of 22% over the year before. This goes to show that the U.S. plug-in car market is slowly, but surely, starting a steady upward trend. The excellent sales figures for 2014 are in large part thanks to strong December sales. During the past month, a total of 12,874 plug-ins were sold, over 2,000 more than December, 2013, setting a new record for one month sales, surpassing the 12,053 sold last May.
The fact that December was such a good month for the EV market suggests that falling gas prices has not deterred consumers from purchasing alternative fuel vehicles, despite the potential for saving a significant amount of money at the pump by buying a conventional, gasoline-powered car.
Not surprisingly, the Nissan Leaf led the pack with more units sold last year in the U.S. than any other plug-in car. Like the year before, the Leaf was the country’s best-selling electric vehicle, with 30,200 vehicles sold, which is a 34% jump over the year before. In December alone, 3,102 Leafs were purchased, a significant improvement over the 2,529 units sold the same month one year ago. These figures were enough for a 30% share of the U.S. EV market for the Leaf.
Unlike the reining champion Leaf, the second-best selling plug-in car, the Chevrolet Volt, saw a big drop in sales between 2013 and 2014. Last year, a total of 18,805 Volts were sold, 19% down from 2013. Falling Volt sales could be attributed to the fact that General Motors has been focused on developing an affordable, long-range EV that could rival Tesla’s Model S, which has resulted in decreased production volumes.
The Volt is followed by the Model S, with sales numbers for Tesla’s luxury all-electric sedan estimated at 17,300 for this past year. According to Insideevs.com, Tesla sold 3,500 Model S units in December alone, setting a new monthly record for any EV model.
The top 10 list of best-selling plug-in cars is rounded out by the Toyota Prius, the Ford Fusion Energi, the Ford C-Max Energi, the BMW i3, the Smart ED, the Ford Focus Electric, and the Fiat 500e. Currently, U.S. consumers can choose from 22 different plug-in models, and that list is expected to expand significantly over the course of this year.