Despite many buyers holding out for a coming Chevy Bolt and Tesla Model 3, US electric car sales are doing great. Based on sales estimates for Tesla models (since Tesla doesn’t break out sales by month or by country), the Model S dropped to #2 and the Model X held onto #3 in the US car market, while the Chevy Volt rose to #1. However, if you look at how close sales of these models are and take into account that Tesla delivered ~3,000 more Model S sedans in the US, it’s hard to know how the top 3 ranking actually plays out.
After the top 3, though, there’s a significant step down to the #4 Nissan LEAF and #5 Ford Fusion Energi, before another even steeper step down to the #5 Ford C-Max Energi, #6 BMW i3, #7 Volkswagen e-Golf, #8 BMW X5 xDrive40e, #9 Audi A3 e-tron, #10 Chevy Spark EV, and approximately a dozen other compliance cars. Overall, plug-in car sales accounted for ~0.87% of all US light duty vehicle sales in October. That’s one of the highest percentages we’ve seen, but adjustments for the high Model S sales in Q3 put August, September, and October at 0.93%, 0.091%, and 0.94%, respectively. In other words, we’re getting pretty close to that 1% milestone.
How will things change in the coming months as the Chevy Bolt rolls out, as people really delay EV purchases and leases in order to wait it out for the Tesla Model 3, and as more second-generation and long-range affordable electric cars are announced and come onto the market? Hard to know, but we’ll be tracking the trends eagerly.
