BMW, Nissan, Ford, GM Set Records In August To Pace EV Sales Higher In US

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August for plug-in sales in America was a month like no other, as 11 plug-in vehicles set new yearly highs during the month!

2015 Ford Focus Electric Breaks Through In August

And it was a good thing too, as very strong year-over-year comps (August 2013-11,273) coupled with Tesla’s summer production shutdown/focus on Asia threatened to end what was 44 consecutive monthly sales increases for the US market.

Make that 45 in a row now!

In total, an estimated 11,803 plug-ins were sold during August, good for a 5% increase over 2013 and the 3rd best result ever.

76,799 EVs have been sold so far in the US this year, which is a 28% improvement over the 60,012 sold at this point in 2013.

Going forward, the monthly comparables remaining from last year would seem to be ‘easy beats’ – look for the overall percentage improvement to steadily increase and up somewhere close to 40%; especially with the BMW i3, Mercedes Benz B-Class ED, VW e-Golf and Kia soul EV all adding to the 2014 numbers.

Of special note for August:

• Nissan set a new all-time world record for most BEVs sold in a month with 3,186 sold in the US for August
• BMW destroyed their previous best effort (363) with 1,025 i3s moved during the month
• Both the Chevrolet Volt and Cadillac ELR set a new year-highs with 2,511 and 196 cars sold (full story here)
• After 19 consecutive months of sell ‘100-and-something’ Focus Electrics, Ford managed to sell 264 copies this month – its best result ever
• The Toyota RAV4 EV sales improved by 335% this month to set a new year high (by a long shot) at 228 copies
• The BMW i8 launched, and sold 9 PHEVs in its debut month

Also: Historical monthly results, as well as a breakdown for each vehicle’s monthly sales, can be found on our Monthly Plug-In Scorecard

2014 Monthly Sales Chart For The Major Plug-In Automakers *Estimated Tesla NA Sales Numbers – Reconciled on Quarterly Totals from Earnings Report (Q1 Sales reported @ 6,457-3,000 Intl Delivers, Q2 7,579 total-approx reported International registrations, Q3 7,785 total deliveries ~ 3,900 US) *Fiat 500e data estimated for Jan/Feb

Some Other Points Of Interest For August 2014:

Will The Nissan LEAF Be The First BEV To Hit The 4,000 Level?

Top Manufacturers Of Plug-In Vehicles:

1. Nissan – 3,186
2. General motors – 2,787
3. Ford – 2,536
4. BMW – 1,050
5. Toyota – 1,046

New All-Time Highs:

• Nissan LEAF – 3,186 (3,117 – May 2014)
• BMW i3 – 1,050 (363 – July 2014)
• Ford Focus Electric – 264 (198 – July 2014)
• Cadillac ELR – 196 (188 – July 2014)
• Mercedes-Benz B-Class ED – 51 (4 – July 2014)
• BMW i8 – 9 (first month)