Featured December U.S. Plug-in Sales

good for volt, they're closing in on tesla.

 

unless you count both the X & the S together ... then .... even if you throw Chevy Sparks & Bolts into the mix, GM's doing a tad better than half of Tesla. On another milestone ... iirc, and counting the Roadsters, Tesla will cross the 200,000 units sold threshold - within the next 9 months - even if they do less business than in 2016. You Model 3 reservation holders better be at the front of the line if you want to grab that full $7,500 fed tax credit. "Current" (pun intended) owners get automatically kicked to the front of the line, no matter how long you waited outside the store on opening reservation day. But don't look too downcast, the end of the credit fades slowly ... dropping from the total .... down 50% .... then lower .... then ... POOF. (wonder how much i could sell my spot for ....)

 

elon says gm isn't 'committed enough'. maybe use, maybe no, but at least they're trying, which is more than i can say for most manufacturers.

he may just be teasing, but the fact is, gm is a completely different company than tesla. they can't go about it the same way. that's taking nothing away from musk, but it's silly to compare the two companies commitment to electric vehicles.

 

As far as PHEV/Prime, I would note California extended the green HOV stickers in Sept_2016 so that could be having a sales increase impact.

In mid-Feb we will get the CNCDA (California new car sales) 2016 data to be able to calculate % Plug In sales in California.

 

it wouldn't really cause a sales increase impact, because they are selling every one they get. but it is definitely a sales impact. without it, the numbers would be lower, but no way to determine how much. cali would always sell more than other states. more people, more enviroweenies.

 

Yep just means more primes in california than other states.

Prius liftback down 13% yoy in 2016 versus 2015. New rav4 and improved sales of the fusion hybrid left hybrids down 9.7% yoy.

Plug-in sales up 37% despite few prius phv or prime for most of the year (2477 all year for both combined compared to 5850 for tesla model S just in December).

For hill - you are thinking tesla world wide sales, about 60% of tesla sales were in the US last year, next year my guess is less. That means there should be full tax credit for those of us that went to the show room to get in line for the model 3 the first day. I do expect to have to buy options to get the full tax credit.

 

how many total hv/phev/perv/bev yoy?

 

Don't understand perv.
December 2016 Dashboard
Type 2016 2015
Hybrid 347,029 - 384,417 -9.7%

PHEV 72,935 - 43,143 +69%
BEV 43,143 - 71,158 +18%
plug-in 159,139 - 116,199 +37% inside ev numbers

BEV are a little different in inside ev and I trust those other numbers more but you see the trend. New models are giving plug-ins good growth after a disapointing 2015. Hybrids are losing market share partially because of low gas prices.

 

or are they just losing most to plug ins? and are ev sales gaining total market share?

 

That calls for analysis, others will disagree. Bigest jump in plug-in was in the luxury sport segment, and hybrids that don't plug in just can't perform as well as these new vehicles.

Volt was up but leaf was down, in that kind of 4/5 seat segment where the prius lives. Together they picked up less than 7000 vehicles. Prius lost 15K. My guess is prius really lost out to gasoline corolla and camry sales, same for camry. Fusion hybrid and phev were both up.

My guess is low gas prices are hurting hybrid sales with or without plug-ins.

New interesting vehicles are fueling plug-in growth. leaf looks old compared to the volt, bolt, and upcoming model 3 so its losing sales too.

 

sounds like fuel efficient vehicles are losing ground, but i'm not including diesels.

 

I know, last I checked in October, there appeared to be a real glut of 2016 Corollas still on dealer lots.
It appears they have all been cleared out now.

 

There aren't many left to purchase after the VW debacle.

 

Not all vehicles are purchased in the US.

 

Hybrids lost about 37k sales.
Plugins picked up about 43k.

So a slight gain, but basically flat.

 

From a percentage world view, it looks like total market is up 43-37k ~= 6k increase. This is spittin' distance from the +7k of the market leader, the Prius hatchback. But I agree, it would be better higher.

Bob Wilson

 

Top left of the chart "2016-US".

 

Point taken.

 

EVs are like the Gen I Honda Insight,
Many people who had never bought a new car bought a Gen I insight . Many owners of Gen i insights would not own a Prius or a truck or anything mainstream
(I know one who figures he's set for life with only that car, he thinks no other car should be driven by anyone that isn't actually moving 5 or more people every trip)

Those people effectively were not apart of the car buying demographic (myself included)
They are not apart of any demographic, they are new, they have unique interests in what a car should and should not be. They normally would never buy any of the offerings on the plate.

Likewise many buyers of EVs would never have bought a new car, I figured I never would buy another new car for the rest of my life then get over half off a brand new loaded volt and a tax break.

While it's true there are a lot of wide eyed true believers who buy a new car every year trying the latest moving from a prii to an EV to get their smug on, those folks were never reliable brand buyers. I remember one idiot who had a prii to be green then moved into a Bugatti because he needed it. Another went from a volt to some v8 Mercedes because gas was cheap.

The reality is the people who want EVs most also bitch the most about the price because they aren't used to paying more than $1500 for a car.
These folks are not moving from or to anything because what they wanted in a car never really existed before.

They are an expansion of the car market to new breed.

My first car was a 1981 Comutacar an electric car, I have always driven electrically even before it was mainstream.

I had zero interest in new cars for many years and my interest now is begrudgingly because car bodies are not designed to be efficient.

Hell my former distance car was a 1970 Subaru 360 , it got over 60mpg.
We should be doing better today, with 7 billion people we should not be allowed to do otherwise.