August and September 2013 were funky months in the US auto industry. Basically, the reason for this is the auto industry’s funky calendar. The “last day” of the previous month on the auto industry’s calendar is actually the first weekday of the next calendar month. Because that “last day of the month of August” happened to be Labor Day this year (September 2), all those Labor Day auto sales were logged in August rather than September. (Yep, that’s a notable reason for why electric and hybrid car sales were up so much in August — sorry we missed that last month.)
Confused? Read that paragraph again. Not confused? You may proceed to the next paragraph. 😀
With that big Labor Day hit, US auto sales were down almost across the board in September 2013 compared to September 2012, including electric and hybrid auto sales. As you can see in the table at the bottom of this post, GM was hit hard, Honda was hit hard, Toyota was hit hard, and electric and hybrid models from other brands were also hit hard.
Notably, however, the Nissan Leaf and Tesla Model S continued to shine compared to 2012, and Ford’s electric and hybrid lineup continued to perform better than in 2012 (thanks to several relatively high-selling cars that were introduced right at the end of 2012).
Looking at the bigger picture — year-to-date sales — is perhaps much more useful and interesting. It is also more varied. At the end of September 2013, compared to the end of September 2012:
- Ford’s electric and hybrid sales are up 328.01% (67,232 vs 15,708 sales).
- Nissan’s electric (Nissan Leaf) sales are up 208.44% (16,076 vs 5,212 sales).
- Toyota’s electric and hybrid sales are up 9.55% (271,538 vs 247,878 sales) despite all the new competition.
- Tesla’s sales are of course up to a huge degree — 8056.25% (13,050 vs 160 sales).
- GM’s electric and hybrid sales are down 9.3% (38,498 vs 42,446 sales).
- Honda’s electric and hybrid sales are down 5.5% (13,929 vs 14,739 sales).
- Porsche’s hybrid sales are down 57.24% (552 vs 1,291 sales).
On the whole,
- 100% electric car sales are up to a huge degree — 447.95% (33,617 vs 6,135)
- Plug-in hybrid electric car sales are up to a fair degree — 35.86% (32,718 vs 24,082)
- And conventional hybrid electric car sales are also up quite a bit — 21.03% (360,245 vs 297,656)
All combined, hybrid and electric car sales are up 30.11% in the US. Between the beginning of January 2013 and the end of September 2013, 426,580 such cars were sold in the US, considerably more than the 327,873 sold between the beginning of January 2012 and end of September 2012. The trend is still very green. Here’s the full table:
Also see:
Leaf & Volt Switch Places At #1 For 5th Time This Year
Toyota, GM, & Honda Hybrid & EV Sales — Up Or Down?
Ford Hybrid & EV Sales Continue To Surge
Source?
Source of the sales figures? The auto companies.