Chevy Bolt is July’s Best-Selling EV despite Being Available in Only 18 States
The battle for the best-selling EV in the United States is mostly unnoticed as the majority of car buyers continue to drive off dealership lots with good old gasoline-powered cars. But EV sales are rising and, in July, it was the Chevy Bolt that took the top spot despite having been available in only 18 states.
The Bolt—not to be confused with the hybrid Volt—was off to a slow start. After launching in December 2016, it has only just now surpassed 10,000 sales, even though GM had originally planned for a capacity of 25,000 to 35,000 units for the first year of production.
Related: 2017 Chevrolet Volt overview
The Bolt’s July performance shows that all hope isn’t lost for the weirdly-proportioned subcompact hatchback. With 1,971 units sold, the Bolt outperformed all of its competitors, including the Tesla Model S and Model X, and the Toyota Prius Prime. It also returned the Nissan LEAF’s favor by kicking it to the curb (wait a sec, it’s already been doing that—not looking good for the LEAF).
So far this year, GM has sold 9,563 Chevrolet Bolts, putting it fifth in the overall sales rankings for 2017, behind the Model S, Volt, Prius Prime, and Model X, in that order. If the Bolt can continue its upward trend—and it is a trend, not a sudden spike, as sales have been increasingly steadily since February—it may very well challenge for the title of “best-selling EV” by the time December rolls around.
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