4 hours ago by
Jay Cole
While 2015 overall was a bit of disappointment when it came to plug-in sales in the United States, it was not surprising. We had expressed heading into 2015 that extraordinary market forces would be working to hold sales at bay for most of the calendar year…that is, until the tides changed in the Fall. And when they did sales will soar higher for the indefinite future.
And sure enough, for the last 3 months of 2015, new year-over-year highs were made, with both November and December setting new monthly records. In fact, December saw a new all-time record for plug-in sales set at ~13,699 EVs sold.
All of January’s sales results are not yet in (until Wednesday afternoon), but it appears another record month has been eked out despite BMW’s best effort to sink the ship with abysmal results.
New entries from Tesla (Model X), BMW (X5 PHEV), Audi (A3 e-tron), all added “plus” sales in a new market segment this year that could not be accessed a year ago.
Also of interest this month:
*- GM set a new personal record for sales in January, although some supply issues may pop up in late February as a new model year (2017) production just got underway on Monday
*- while Nissan managed to get the 30 kWh version of the Nissan LEAF to a ~third of its dealers in December, the company decided to make the financing deals about as unattractive as possible for anxious buyers (causing a sales implosion). Nissan did a little better on the deals and the inventory in January, but not enough to stop its sales skid
*- the Audi A3 Sportback e-tron and Hyundai Sonata PHV both find themselves with some fairly deep inventory despite just debuting last month; can the duo be the surprise hit in the PHEV passenger car segment for 2016?
*- in December BMW blew the doors of expectations, with the i8 and X5 PHEV obliterating past sales levels and the BMW i3 coming close…in January the exact opposite of “blowing the doors off” happened for the i3 and i8
As a sidenote: 26 Toyota Mirais were also sold in January.
Editor’s Note: The sales data in this story is updated in REAL TIME throughout the day Tuesday, February 2nd, with Ford and Porsche reporting on Wednesday afternoon. If you don’t see your favorite plug-ins data yet…check back soon, it is coming!
Last update: Tuesday, February 2nd @ 2:12 PM
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Below Chart:
A individual run-down of each vehicle’s monthly result and some analysis behind the numbers. Additionally, waaaaaay down at the bottom of the story is both the 2016 YTD chart as well as the complete 2015 results.
Below: Individual sales reports on each plug-in brand for the US
Chevrolet Volt: For January, GM took down old sales records (at least at the consumer level for retail sales), notching 996 sales during the month (full monthly report here).
Just as in the December prior, demand for the 2016 Volt was high, and GM sold much of what they had available – it was just too bad they didn’t have more. December notched 2,114 sales, which was a 42% increase from a year ago.
However, January also saw inventory stayed low, and we suspect that GM is about out of reserve copies of the 2016 edition to fill in at dealers past the ~1,400 that sit on lots today, which likely will open up a sales gap in late February, March and April until the 2017s arrive. Production of the new 2017 edition got underway on Monday (February 1st, 2016)
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GM ended 2015 having sold 15,393 Volts in total, off some 18% from 2014. However, we do expect the plug-in Chevy to set new record in 2016 with the new 53 mile edition.
The 2016 edition was thought to only available in 11 US states and Canada (although we have seen some volume in Virginia too), before production will be turned in a couple months, and a new, slightly improved 2017 edition will be introduced – with that model going into production in February. However, December saw GM also offer the car in Mexico.
2016 Chevrolet Volt availability states: California, Oregon, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont and New Hampshire
Nissan LEAF: Nissan logged another month to forget as some deeper 2016 inventory of the new longer range model could not halt the sales skid of the LEAF in the US, just 751 were sold.
Previously, Nissan sold a disappointing 1,347 units in December.
On the plus side for the new year, inventories of the new 2016 edition did increase markedly heading into February (to about ~2,200 units) and we expect them to continue to grow (and get spread out more evenly across the country) from here. We should note that of the existing 2016 inventory only about 1,200 units of are the longer range variety…and Nissan has only managed to get out ~2,000 copies of the 30 kWh cars in total since its arrival in late 2015.
Nissan also quickly broke the near-MSRP pricing in January, offering deeper discounts and more attractive leasing options.
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Overall last year, Nissan closed the year off some 43% in total, selling 17,269 LEAFs this year, versus an all-time best of 30,200 in 2014. The only direct for sales in 2016 one would think would be up.
Separately (and ultimately more importantly) in November we got a look at Nissan’s new IDS Concept from Japan – which was basically a ‘nod and a wink’ to the new e-technology that will be found in the next generation LEAF.
The IDS Concept houses a 60 kWh NMC battery pack good for more than 200 miles (320 km) of real world/EPA driving.
Cadillac ELR: For January, 67 ELRs were sold, off 27% from a year ago. Considering historical sales levels, this was a decent result for Caddy all things considered.
Previously in December GM had a decent sales surprise with the Cadillac ELR, as the company sold a year’s best 135 copies.
Overall for 2015, 1,024 were moved, which was off 22% from the 1,310 sold in 2014.
Going forward, dealer acceptance of the 2016 ELR may hinder sales as much as anything, after getting burned with a far too high MSRP on previous model year (2014) pricing.
Despite the 2016 edition being available for several months, there is still only about ~150 units on Caddy dealer lots, so it seems as though (at least for now) the sales fate of the ELR will be range-bound (no pun intended).
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The 2016 ELR does gain some performance over the 2014 model (0-60mph comes up in 6.4 seconds – 1.5 seconds than the older model), despite still using the 17.1 kWh battery found in the current Chevrolet Volt. The Cadillac also gets a $9,000 MSRP haircut (now starting at $65,995), which should help it move a little more product.
BMW i3:
Apparently January was the “end of the world” when it comes to plug-in sales for BMW, as somehow…and we aren’t even sure how this is possible, the company sold just 182 copies.
Curiously, when explaining the entire brand’s 4.7% sales decrease in January (18,082 to 18,981), BMW CEO Ludwig Willisch said, “January suffered a bit from the strong storms that froze large parts of the country”.
Apparently, those “strong storms” mostly hit the parts of dealer lots containing the i3 and i8, as the two combined for just 214 sales, down 1,864 units from last month, and down from 775 sold a year ago.
January’s terrible result came right after one of the model’s best, selling 1,422 sales in December. It appears the up and down seesaw we saw develope late in 2015 will continue into 2016 – only in a much larger way.
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For 2015, BMW sold 11,024 i3s, which made it the 6th plug-in to have reached the 5-digit mark in 2015 (Volt, LEAF, Prius PHV, Model S, Fusion Energi). In 2014, BMW sold 6,092 i3s, good for the 7th best overall spot for plug-in sales in America…not bad considering it was only available for 7 full months in the US.
Despite the lack of sales, the inventory situation looks fairly decent entering February with north of ~1,300 on hand today.
Tesla Model S: Tesla does not give out exact monthly sales (apparently because the public can’t handle the concept of regional allocations and delivery lead times)… so we never know for sure what the monthly numbers total up to until Tesla’s quarterly (or annual) updates add more clarity, but we do our best to keep our finger on the pulse of what is happening.
To come to an estimated monthly, number, we don’t simply take the quarterly estimate given by Tesla and divide it by 3 and hope it all works out…it just doesn’t work like that in the real world.
We simply report from the data we accumulate ourselves, the first hand accounts available from the factory and from the community itself when available – and the number is what it is. So far that has worked out pretty well, with no quarter being off by more than 300 units versus information Tesla has reported publically, and for the full year results last year we came within 100 units with our net estimate of 17,300, after being w
That being said, we only estimate this number because Tesla does not, and to not put a number on Model S sales would be to paint an even more inaccurate overall picture of EV sales. Despite our fairly accurate track record, we are not analysts, portfolio managers and we do not own any positions in Tesla the company.
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Tesla sold a record number of Model S sedans in Q4, some 17,192 of them, which put the company on its way to selling ~50,480 EVs in total, hitting the lower portion of its 50,000-52,000 full year guidance.
To do that it was all hands on deck to build and deliver all the North America cars from mid-November on, as well as to ramp up Model X production…and to basically ignore most international production until it was so late in the year that no more US deliveries could be squeezed in. An internationally bound Model S was a rare bird to see coming off the line between the 2nd week of November and Christmas.
But by the last week of December and the first 3 weeks or so of January, it was time for Tesla to find its international groove again…at least if they wanted those cars eventually counted for Q1 deliveries in March.
US production was not abandoned completely over this time, but odds are if you ordered a Model S from the middle of December on, Tesla was now telling you to expect your car in late February or March. Pretty much the same as if you ordered your car today (late March).
This means US sales this month were mostly comprised of “we tried, but just missed the end of quarter deadline” January deliveries (for any number of reasons), with a spattering of inventory and random production deliveries thrown in.
We estimate 850 Model S sedans were delivered in January, and even at that, we might be a touch optimistic.
Tesla Model X: Like the Model S, Tesla does not itself report Model X sales, so we do our best – with all the data at our disposal to estimate monthly results for North America as best we can
(For more info on that, check out our disclaimer for the Model S)
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With all the fanfare one would expect from Tesla Motors and its CEO Elon Musk, the much anticipated/oft delayed Model X arrived in September, with a big launch party – of which you can check out the full video of (as well as newly released details/specs) here.
After delivering the first 6 copies of the Model X in September, and a handful in October and November, Tesla heated things up a bit in December, delivering an estimated 199 copies during the month, and exactly 208 in Q4 – ending the year with 214 sold.
For January, despite production kicking off for non-Signature edition models of the X mid-month (more on that later), no actual regular production SUVs were delivered during the month – only Signature editions (and some further referral winner Founder’s editions) went out, and only for the United States.
Thankfully, with a good bulk of knowledge on hand for early Signature holders in the US, this makes estimating deliveries fairly straight forward. We peg that number at 370 Model X deliveries for January.
Getting back to that “regular” Model X production, it seems that Tesla is currently only green-lighting Model X orders for P90D’s with premium interior options at this point (ludicrous option or not seems irrelevant). Given the production patterns we expect these regular Model X’s to start arriving to customer’s driveways mid-February.
Volvo XC90 T8 PHEV: NO JANUARY DATA TO REPORT YET
The first (and widely anticipated) plug-in offering from Volvo to be offered in the US arrived late in August on a technical basis, selling 4 copies.
That being said, we are pretty sure these 4 logged sales (as well as the single sale in October) was a result of US summer test drives being given to potential customers…and not actual ownership deliveries.
However, full retail deliveries were finally underway in December, and the plug-in Volvo had a decent starting month – selling 74 copies.
The Volvo XC90 T8 (details) plug-in is rated at 394 hp, and gets 14 miles of estimated range (0-12 in pure all-electric mode) via a 9.2 kWh battery, and is the first to offer a standard 240v/120v dual charging cord set. Pricing starts at $68,100 in the US.
It will be interesting to see how much demand their is for the first extended range PHEV in America, as Volvo already under-estimate demand for the XC90 plug-in by a factor of 5 in Europe.
Chevrolet SPARK EV: With the 2016 edition finally arriving in December, the Spark EV was once again free to sell at a more appropriate level to demand.
For January 139 were moved, which was up 62% from a year ago. Previously in December a strong 152 were moved in the first month of 2016 availability.
The new 2016 inventory also continued to grow in January, we now head into February with about ~300 available to be purchased (and who knows how many more penned up waiting to find a dealer-home).
Earlier last year, GM confirmed the Spark EV would live on (in first generation trim) for one more year (2016) while waiting on the Chevrolet Bolt to arrive in 2017, however the Spark EV is only build in South Korea and production is sporadic at best.
In 2015, Gm sold 2,629 Spark EVs in the US, impressive considering the improvement over 2014 numbers, when 1,145 were moved.
Audi A3 Sportback e-tron:
We have always felt that the A3 e-tron had a real shot to be the “dark horse” surprise seller of 2016, and in the plug-ins first full month on the market, it did not disappoint.
For January, an impressive 327 were sold.
Originally, the plug-in Audi was scheduled to arrive as a week 43 arrival (October 19 through 26), but a certification problem with California regulators kept a growing inventory penned up until the very last week of the year.
Despite only 2-3 selling days of availability in December, Audi still managed to deliver 49 of them.
Part of the reason for those high expectations for the A3 e-tron is the low price. $37,900 gets you the Audi badge, 8.8 kWh of battery – good for 22-odd miles of real world driving…and federal credit of $4,158, which is significant because this brings the e-tron package down to within $2,800 of the base MSRP of the A3.
Check out our own early/pre-delivery review on the Audi A3 e-tron here.
Ford Fusion Energi: NO JANUARY DATA TO REPORT YET. Ford will be report plug-in sales Wednesday February 3rd, 2016 in the afternoon – so come on back then!
For the first time in 2015 Ford has eclipsed the 1,000 mark with one of its plug-in vehicles.
And as one would expect, the vehicle to set a new 2015-high for Ford is the Fusion Energi with 1,058 moved in December.
Looking at the inventory and it is easy to see why (and how) so many Fusion plug-ins have sold; the Fusion Energi is currnetly the “most stocked” EV in the US at around ~5,000 copies.
For 2015, 9,750 Fusion Energis were sold, which was off by about 15% from 2014, however the model is showing a lot more strength of late than it was a year ago. The 2016 outlook for sales is pretty strong for the extended range Ford.
The Fusion Energi basically offers the same package as the C-Max Energi, but in a larger sedan package. The third plug-in to be offered from Ford has been rated by the EPA at a combined 88 MPGe and has an electric range of 19 miles.
Toyota Prius Plug-In:
Whoosh – is the sound of Prius PHV sales as the remaining inventory circles the drain. It is all over. See you in 2017.
Toyota is lucky that the Mitsubishi i-MiEV is still officially on the market, because otherwise the Prius PHV would find itself at the very bottom of the plug-in sales charts for 2016.
For January, just 10 were sold. The reason? There isn’t any left.
In 2015, just 4,191 were sold, which was off almost 70% from the 13,164 in 2014. We would like to note this was not a reflection of US demand for the car, as we feel they would easily buy 800-1,200 copies a month, it is simply the fact production of the current car ended this past summer – and Toyota messed up making a seamless transition to the next generation model as it did for the regular hybrid.
Although a next generation Prius PHV is confirmed, delays in the ‘regular’ Prius have pushed the plug-in version’s introduction as far off as late in the second half of 2016 as a 2017 model car. This means we are in the midst of a ~14 month gap (with zero production) and there will be no newly produced cars to sell over that period.
Our prediction going forward, is there isn’t any left for all of 2016 – and every low volume plug-in will clean the Prius PHV’s ‘sales clock‘ this year until the company makes up some slight ground at year’s end – which is a shame, because the demand to move a good volume has never waned with the US public, only Toyota’s desire to sell them.
Mercedes-Benz S550
When it comes to plug-in luxury, there is a new boss in town! Having arrived in late Summer of 2015, the Mercedes S550 presents a level of refinement previously unseen in the EV segment for the US.
After setting a new “best ever” month for the S550H with 35 copies sold in December, Mercedes still managed to sell a (relatively speaking) decent amount in January – a further 19 copies.
UPDATE: Despite the S550 PHV’s recent arrival in the US, the new 2016s are here! The only issue with that for consumers might be that they are unchanged in every way but pricing. The 2016 retails higher – at $95,650
Despite its huge footprint, and pretty heavy weight (just north of 5,000lbs), the electric motor and turbo 6 cylinder still manage to zip the Mercedes to 60 mph in just 5.2 seconds, while giving the car 24 MPG in the city and 30 on the highway.
Range is rated at 12+ miles with the Prius-like “electric + gas” tag, meaning you have to drive with a certain light-footedness to get the 20 miles on just electricity. The S550 has a 8 kWh battery on board, so expect about a $4,700 federal tax credit with your purchase.
Hyundai Sonata PHV: NO JANUARY DATA TO REPORT YET
We didn’t expect to see the plug-in Sonata arrive in the US until the very last couple weeks of the year, yet there it was at a dealership we passed by in late November.
There wasn’t a lot of depth to the inventory in November, but was good news nonetheless.
Currently Hyundai has not decided whether not to break out plug-in hybrid sales, so until then we will have to estimate the number as best we can from inventory levels and rebate data as it is available.
For December, we estimate 145 Sonata PHEVs were delivered.
The Sonata PHV should be a decent seller in the US as it offers an attractive mid-size PHEV value. The Hyundai has been rated at 27 miles of range and pricing starts at $34,600.
With $4,919 dollar worth of federal credit also on the table thanks to the car’s 9.8 kWh battery, the effective $29,681 price-point (+dst) is acceptable; however, when factored into a lease, it makes the plug-in version of Sonata almost as inexpensive as the petrol version.
Volkswagen e-Golf:
Adding to the demand in the US, the company introduced a new, less expensive SE trim level which is arriving now. The new trim level brings the base starting price of the e-Golf down to $29,815.
How high could sales go? Still fairly hard to say without a deeper inventory allocation, but sometime hitting 4 digits doesn’t seem hard to fathom today – at least when (and if) inventory levels get high enough to support that many sales.
The e-Golf has been rated at 83 miles by the EPA and carries a 24.2 kWh LEAF-like (base) battery.
Ford C-Max Energi: NO JANUARY DATA TO REPORT YET. Ford will be report plug-in sales Wednesday February 3rd, 2016 in the afternoon – so come on back then!
Usually the C-Max Energi mimics the sales performance of its sister-car Fusion Energi. Unfortunately, that trend broke in December as the Fusion moved higher, and the C-Max lower.
For December, 579 copies were sold – the model’s worst showing since April (553).
Previously in November, 639 copies were sold. Truthfully, the C-Max Energi seems to have found a range band of between 500 and 700 units now, and it seems likely to stay inside those limits for all months not January and February going forward.
We should note that unlike its sister car the Fusion Energi, the C-Max Energi has a limited ceiling for sales as the inventory is much more tightly controlled to about 1/3 that of the Fusion. Heading into February, about ~1,400 were in stock – still a respectable amount.
For 2015, 7,591 C-Max Energis have been sold, which lagged 2014 when Ford sold 8,433.
In 2013, the high water mark for the C-Max Energi was set in October as 1,092 plug-ins sold. It still would not surprise us to see the C-Max Energi live only as long as it takes to introduce a Focus Energi.
Mercedes-Benz B-Class ED (or B250e now if you will):
The Mercedes B-Class, now officially known as the B250e for 2016, trudged along into January, selling 58 copies.
The B-Class has a bit of a rough go since its entry to the US. The original model year (2014) was extremely short, the 2015 edition came late and without much fanfare or inventory, and the 2016 edition recently was hit with a stop sale (which has now been resolved) order in Fall.
It appears now that Mercedes has decided to make the B-Class a limited offering in the US until a new, longer range model arrives in the future (more on that below), as national inventories struggle to stay above the 3 -digit level.
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During September we also heard news (via a normally very reliable source) that Mercedes was about to get serious with the B-Class ED, giving it an estimated 300 mile (NEDC) ~225 mile EPA range upgrade in next generation trim, while also removing the Tesla drivetrain/components to bring costs down. It seems as though the B-Class ED may be one of the “ones to watch” heading into the 2nd generation wars in a couple year’s time.
BMW i8:
What a difference a month makes! And not in a good way.
After selling an almost unfathomable 656 i8s in December, sales plummeted a zillion-percent (technical term) to just 32 in January.
How did this happen? Was it the new calendar year? The bad weather? Did BMW salespeople refuse to let potential i8 buyers in the showroom? Who can tell…lets just hope the situation rectifies itself next month.
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As for that December figure of 656, that was a new record.
The old record was just 217 units, so to say this result was unexpected would be a massive understatement.
For 2015, BMW sold 2,265 i8s. A more than respectable amount, given the 6-figure price-point.
Despite the extremely low January sales result, one can’t put the blame on inventory issues as, if anything, i8 depth grew in the first month of 2016. Heading into February about ~800 copies are available to be purchased – pretty close to a new all-time high.
Porsche Panamera S E-Hybrid: NO JANUARY DATA TO REPORT YET (expected Wednesday afternoon)
The Panamera S e-Hybrid seems not able to recover from the arrival of sister SUV, the Cayenne S e-Hybrid.
For December after falling sales for months, the Panamera S e-Hybrid screamed for mercy, selling just 16 copies – its worst result since debuting in 2013
Basically, the upcoming refresh probably can’t come soon enough.
The high mark for sales on the Panamera was set in the first month of the year, with an amazing 141 sold. The advent of the Cayenne plug-in means that this level will never be seen again.
The Panamera S E-Hybrid has a combined 416 hp output (333 hp electric) and can get north of 60 mph in about 5 seconds, with a top speed of 167 mph. Pricing starts at $99,000. Also of interest, the S E-Hybrid is currently available at all Porsche dealers nationwide – a rare thing these days.
Porsche Cayenne S e-Hybrid: NO JANUARY DATA TO REPORT YET (expected Wednesday afternoon)
While the Panamera S e-Hybrid struggles to prove viability, the Cayenne plug-in continues to put more butts in the seats.
For December 137 were sold, besting the all-time high set in October of this year (125).
The S e-Hybrid had consistently outsold its Panamera plug-in cousin by more than a 2-to-1 ratio entering this fall, but it appears those numbers are more likely to change to 5-to-1 in 2016.
We had expected this summer, that as more inventory of the Cayenne plug-in arrived, more sales to be realized by Porsche. Unfortunately, the old “allocation chestnut” card has seemingly been played by Porsche and/or its dealers and national inventories have hovered between 200-250 for quite some time now.
Fiat 500e:
When it comes to reporting plug-in sales, we have another Tesla on our hands here (as in they don’t report sales).
Chrysler/Fiat has been giving us a bit of the stonewall treatment when it comes to reporting 500e sales.
UPDATE: In the past (2014), InsideEVs had used data from a 3rd party data collection site, however upon inspection of those numbers, they were found to be materially short from rebates claimed on the car. Historical sales have since been updated to more accurately reflect the 500es true sales, and we will continue to report an estimated number based on more accurate data points.
After a fairly strong start in the Fall, sales fell as the end of the year approached, and despite a growing inventory situation, which was a bit odd.
For January, we estimate 275 all-electric Fiats were sold. Also, of interest inventories of the 2016 edition have now hit record highs with ~1,000 now on hand.
The all-time high-water mark was an estimated 1,310 estimated sales of the 500e in March.
BMW X5 xDrive40e: NO JANUARY DATA TO REPORT YET (expected Wednesday)
Up, up and away for the last month of 2015!
Proving that everyone loves an SUV (at least in America), the BMW X5 xDRIVE40e (which we will now just call the X5 plug-in…because its easier) sold a massive 607 copies in December in just its second full month on the market.
Previously in November 167 were sold.
Looking at the potential for future sales, almost 1,000 copies are on hand (6th most of any plug-in) to sell heading into February, so we expect some decent numbers going forward.
Can the X5 plug-in break into the top the “top 5” sellers in the US in 2016? A couple of months ago we probably would have said that was highly unlikely, but ~10,000 sales in 2016 doesn’t seem so foreign today.
Check out our first drive review of the 13 mile AER BMW x5 xDrive40e here.
SMART ForTwo
Despite having a model lineup that is half-convertible, smart had a sales resurgence in the last two month of 2015.
Unfortunately, that did not continue into January, as the 2 seat EV slumped to 48 sales during the month.
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In December and November smart sold 179 and 178 copies (respectively). December’s result was also the best for 2015, although far short of the all-time record set in December of 2014 when 351 were sold.
The smart Ed ends 2015 with 1,387 sold – good for the 13th on the top selling plug-ins list for America.
The smart ED is the first plug-in for America to be offered with a “battery rental” option, which brings the cost of the Smart ED down to $19,990, but adds a $80 month battery rental payment, as well as includes a wider (and longer) battery warranty. Check out all the specs, options and pricing here. The 2-seat Smart electric car gets 68 miles of range from a 17.6 kWh battery.
Ford Focus Electric: NO JANUARY DATA TO REPORT YET. Ford will be report plug-in sales Wednesday February 3rd, 2016 in the afternoon – so come on back then!
/yawn
The Ford Focus is one of the longest available electric cars on the US market – December marked the EV’s 45th month to log sales in America, yet it never strays more than ~100 units from selling 150 copies per month.
It seems almost impossible…yet there it is…the Focus Electric, selling 100ish cars month in and month out.
For December, Ford sold 96 copies of the Focus Electric, so if anything one could say the trend is actually going in the wrong direction, as before November (when 93 were sold, despite a new ad spot), Ford had sold over 100 copies 9 months in a row.
What can we tell you about the malaise Ford finds itself in with the Focus Electric?
The model has sold between 53 and 198 sales per month in 42 of the past 43 months. With just one of those months passing the 200 level (August 2014 -264)
Kia SOUL EV: NO JANUARY DATA TO REPORT YET
Previously in December, Kia sold 95 Soul EVs, after selling just 83 in November – which was its worst result since July.
The 2015 high was set in October, but we have to temper our excitement for the achievement as that was only 109 units, and quite frankly, it should be doing much, much better.
Hey Kia, maybe its time to ship a few more copies to the US?
But we wouldn’t get our hopes up – production of the Soul EV is extremely tight with demands, and the car is sought out everywhere in the world it is sold (perhaps with the exception of Germany – where it is excessively exported to customers in other regions who want it – after picking up valuable EU emission credits)
A note on the Kia numbers: Kia has decided to not split out data on the Soul EV from the regular petrol version, despite several attempts by ourselves to convince them it would be a good idea to do that. As Kia is one of the OEMs we don’t have a strong relationship with, we defer to our friends at HybridCars.com to provide the sales info.
The cute-ute from Hyundai/Kia has a more than decent 93 miles of range (with more 103 miles of range in the city), and a price tag of $33,700 (full details, specs and picture can be found here). We expect the advent of the Kia Optima plug-in and an unnamed Hyundai all-electric sedan to be introduced over the next 12 months or so to signal the end of the Soul EV by 2017.
BELOW: Chart of 2016 results so far, as well as 2015 year end results: