Source: EVObsession 

US electric car sales continue to climb to new heights in 2017. Growing 59% year over year (YoY), approximately 12,000 electric cars were sold across the country in January, accounting for approximately 1% of US auto sales.

January 2017 US Electric Car Sales

The top five models accounted for approximately 40% of total US electric car sales, as most models are still compliance cars that are not designed or marketed to really pull in buyers — and aren’t even available in most states.

Essentially, Tesla and GM are pulling the market forward. The Toyota Prius Prime, though, is a top-of-the-line Prius that is fairly widely available, is building off of the popular Prius name and reputation, and is genuinely cost-competitive with (a better deal than) a conventional Prius — especially once you take the US federal tax credit into account.

The Nissan LEAF — introduced all the way back in 2011 — is still hanging in well above the crowd as well, though. Again, its success relative to other models is quite simply due to its wide availability, the fact that it was designed to be a competitive electric car from the ground up, and some decent marketing/promotion.

Most of the remaining models on the market are hard to find outside of California and Oregon, which makes any evaluation of the “US” EV market still a bit odd. Can you imagine how the Ford F-150 would do if it were only offered in one or two states?

The chart above and tables below provide plenty of information to examine and ponder, but here are some bullet-point highlights as well:

• Electric car sales of all types (fully electric cars and plug-in hybrid electric cars) were up 59% YoY.
• Plug-in hybrid sales were up 86% YoY.
• Fully electric car sales were up 41% YoY.
• The Chevy Volt saw a 62% YoY sales increase, and accounted for ~8% of US electric car sales.
• The Tesla Model S and Model X accounted for 10% and 8% of US electric car sales (respectively), according to our estimates.
• The Chevy Bolt is hopefully still very production limited, as ~1200 monthly sales is well below expectations. Given limited geographic availability, though, it seems most logical that the model is still heavily production limited for some reason — such as lack of battery supply.

Europe Electric Car Sales

The European EV market had approximately 30,000 registrations last month, down 11% over the same month last year. This sales slip, however, had to do with the incentives-derived sales rush of the last quarter of 2015.

Last month, though, the top spots were yet again influenced by the Dutch market sales peak:

#1 VW Passat GTE – This Volkswagen midsize offering had a record result in December, with 3,310 registrations. The Netherlands absorbed 83% of all Passat GTE registrations (2,736), starving the usual bread-and-butter markets, like Sweden (150 units) and Norway (159 units). With the right mix of electric range, space, power, and price, the Passat GTE is a continuing success among company fleets across Europe.

#2 Renault Zoe – Despite being one of those all-hands-on-deck months, as Renault was set to recover the YTD leadership from the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, registrations were down 9% year over year (YoY) to 2,867 registrations. This is largely because mass delivery of the 40 kWh version only happened in France, and late in the month, leaving dealerships with little inventory to sell. Because of this, the French hatchback had good performance at home (1,928 units, up 22% YoY), but disappointed elsewhere.

#3 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV – As it ran to keep the YTD leadership, the Japanese SUV profited from a Dutch sales surge (1,065 registrations) in December to reach a sales peak of 2,393 units, but Mitsubishi ended the month in 3rd, as it failed to deliver in Norway (259 units, down 33% regarding the previous month) and the United Kingdom (440 units, down 35% YoY) their usual monthly Outlander fix. Were they unable to increase the production output?

#4 BMW i3 – The German Stormtrooper hatchback continues to profit from the 33 kWh sales boost, this time with 1,819 units being delivered in the month. Besides the usual Norway, with 413 units, other markets where the Bimmer performed well were Germany (433 deliveries), the United Kingdom (250 units), and Switzerland (149).

#5 Mercedes C350e – Despite not showing up a lot in top positions, the Mercedes midsize model is a consistent performer just outside the Top 5, and in December it profited from strong sales in The Netherlands and the United Kingdom, both above 500 units, to reach a near record performance of 1,622 registrations, proving that fleets and midsize managers are warming up to plug-ins, if nothing else, because of fiscal incentives. Now, whether or not they plug in their company cars at night is a whole different question. …

YTD Ranking – Renault Zoe Wins Model Trophy, BMW Manufacturer Trophy

After a really close race for the “Best Seller” title, with the deliveries delay of the 40 kWh Renault Zoe units artificially dragging down the Zoe performance, the Renault model finally managed to win its first Gold medal, after two Silvers and one Bronze, with 21,735 units registered in 2016 (422 of them being 2-seater LCVs — aka, vans), 417 units ahead of the two-time winner Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV. The Outlander PHEV, despite seeing its sales drop 32% compared to 2015, still managed to give chills to Renault and leave the “Best Seller” title decision to the last week of December, when the Zoe deliveries really took off.

As expected, the Nissan LEAF ended the year in 3rd, with 18,827 registrations, up 21% YoY, being effectively its best year in Europe since it arrived in 2011 — all thanks to the 30 kWh battery in the first half of the year and heavy discounting later.

Below the podium, the VW Passat GTE jumped two positions to 5th place (just ahead of the Tesla Model S), while the Audi A3 e-Tron and Volvo V60 Plug-In profited from strong performances in Holland to climb one position each, respectively to #11 and #16.

Talking about climbers, the trend-setting #18 Audi Q7 e-Tron and #19 Tesla Model X earned a couple of positions in the ranking, with the Tesla model winning the “Rookie of the Year” award.

A hot item on the EV market today is the luxury SUV class. The Volvo XC90 T8 won this category, with almost 10,000 units, three times more sales than the 2015 winner had back then (Porsche Cayenne PHEV, 3,385 units). Interestingly, this year, four luxury SUVs (Volvo XC90, BMW X5, Audi Q7, and Tesla Model X) sold more than last year’s winner. Hot stuff indeed.

In the manufacturer ranking, BMW won its first manufacturer title, with 17% market share, leaving last year’s winner, Volkswagen, in 2nd place (15%), and Renault in 3rd, with 13% share. Nissan and Mitsubishi followed, both at 10%.

Interestingly, in 2015, BMW was only 6th, with 8% share. The reasons for this turnaround lie in BMW’s ever-expanding i-Performance PHEV lineup pumping out sales at full speed and the new 33 kWh version of the i3, which pulled sales of the RWD hatchback to record heights.