Plug-in Sales Update: Model 3 Leads Charge, Followed By Prius Prime and Bolt EV
Plug-in vehicles have continued their rising trend, marking the 29th month in a row of year-over-year sales gains.
This was led by the Tesla Model 3 with an estimated 2,485 sales, but still is not being delivered in the high numbers that the brand promised thanks to problems in ramping up production.
Coming in behind that with 2,050 sales is the Toyota Prius Prime, which InsideEVs.com blames on its just-right price point of an MSRP of $23,450 with a $4,500 federal tax credit, which would put the long-term cost of the car lower than that of the base Prius.
Third in sales is the Chevy Bolt EV with 1,424 sales. The little electric crossover had caused some measure of worried hand-wringing after its January sales of 1,177 units showed a sharp decrease from December’s heady high of more than 3,000 sales. Luckily, February’s sales showed an increase from January and a jump of 49.6% year-over-year, even if it isn’t exactly in close contention with the Prius Prime.
Photo: Maurizio Pesce
Fourth brings us back to Tesla with the Model S, which as recently as December was the top dog in terms of plug-in vehicles, but is now making an estimated 1,125 deliveries as the brand has diverted its efforts from its older models to its higher-volume Model 3.
Photo: KelleyBlueBook
Rounding out the top five, then, is the Chevy Volt, continuing a long slide as more competition enters the market by putting up only 983 sales in February. In part, this is likely to be due to the Bolt EV cannibalizing the Volt’s sales, but at least the Volt increased its sales from a January low of 713 sales.
Just outside of the top five were, in order, the Nissan LEAF (newly redesigned and rolling out to dealerships), the Honda Clarity Plug-in Hybrid (offering some pretty great range for a plug-in hybrid in a sedan), the Tesla Model X (redirecting effort to the Model 3), the Ford Fusion Energi (having trouble pushing sales numbers up despite some brief success last year), and the BMW i3 (shortly after releasing a sportier version, though not one with a bigger battery as of yet).
News Source: InsideEVs.com
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