U.S. Plug-In Electric Car Sales By Size Class (2011-2015)

Tesla Model X to laverage electric SUV sales

The most recent report from DOE Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy gives us interesting look at the plug-in electric car sales in the U.S., by nine different size classes.

The data comes from 2011-2015, so they don't include the now growing SUV class; mostly thanks to Tesla Model X - which in the first six months of 2016 has sold nearly 7,000 copies.

"There were a total of about 114,000 PEV sold in 2015 with 60% of those midsize or large cars, such as the Nissan Leaf and the Tesla Model S. Compact and subcompact vehicles accounted for about one-third of plug-in vehicle sales while all other size classes combined had sales of just 7%. As the number of PEV models in the market has increased from four* to twenty-nine, sales of PEVs have increased more than six-fold from 2011 to 2015."

The Nissan LEAF and Toyota Prius PHEV weighed heavily on the growth of Midsize class in first few years, as well as on the decrease in 2015, when both were struggling (the market has been eager to see a new version of Nissan LEAF, while Toyota stopped production of the Prius Plug-In to prepare for new generation Prius Prime - arriving late this year).

PEV Models by Size Class

Vehicle Size Class	Make/Model
Two-seater	Smart ED
Minicompact	Fiat 500E
Subcompact	Mitsubishi iMiEV BMW Active E Chevrolet Spark Cadillac ELR BMW i3 BMW i8
Compact	Chevrolet Volt Ford Focus VW e-Golf Audi A3 Plug In
Midsize	Nissan Leaf Prius PHEV Ford C-Max Energi Honda Accord Ford Fusion Energi Mercedes B-Class Hyundai Sonata Plug In
Large	Tesla Model S Porsche Panamera S E-Hybrid Mercedes S550 Plug
Small Wagon	Honda Fit EV Kia Soul EV
Small SUV	Toyota RAV4 EV
Standard SUV	Porsche Cayenne S E-hybrid Volvo-XC90 Plug In Tesla Model X BMW X5

Fact #931 Dataset

Supporting Information

PEV Sales by Size Class, 2011-2015

Source: Argonne National Laboratory, Light Duty Electric Drive Vehicles Monthly Sales Updates.