Nissan Leaf & Ford Continue Their Strong Year (July US Sales Update)

July was a momentous month for Mercedes and me. Mercedes saw the US birth of its first electric vehicle, the Mercedes B Class Electric, and my little girl was born. With this being a monthly electric vehicle sales update, there’s not much more to say about either one here. The Mercedes B Class Electric just saw 41 sales, but we have to wait for full sales months and potential ramping up of production to see if the car really goes anywhere (that is, if Mercedes really tries to sell it).

The big plug-in car props in July again go to Nissan, with GM and Ford getting in there a bit. Nissan led the pack yet again with 3,019 sales (62% growth over July 2013). Aside from January, when I estimated that Tesla had 15 more deliveries than the Nissan Leaf had sales, the Leaf has topped the charts every month this year. For the year to date, the Leaf has 13,667 sales, 40% more than the same period last year, and 50% (4,580 more sales) than the #2 Chevy Volt has had for the year to date.

Continuing on with the pattern for the year as a whole, the Volt was #2 in July with 2,020 sales (a 13% increase over last July), the Toyota Prius Plug-in took #3 with 1,371 sales (a 68% increase), and the Ford Fusion Energi took #4 with 1,226 sales (a 201% increase!). The Tesla Model S came in at #5, based on my estimate which is based off of the latest Tesla Model S production/sales report as well as Model S registration reports from Europe and an estimate for China. Unfortunately, with Tesla not providing region-specific sales numbers, even on a quarterly basis, I may have to drop the Model S from my reports in the coming months as Chinese deliveries ramp up… unless someone can pass along reliable monthly registration data for China.

No other plug-in car broke 1,000 sales in July, and the only one that came close was the Ford C-Max Energi (831). Like its Fusion sibling, the C-Max Energi did see a strong increase in sales, 92% more than July 2013.

Personally, I think the Leaf and Ford plug-in car sales trends are the best to look at to get a sense of growing electric car demand in the United States. Nissan is really working to sell its Leaf and has been ramping up production to meet demand. Ford, while it hasn’t gone and built a plug-in car from the ground up, is not trying to repress plug-in car sales from what I can tell. Mike Tinskey, Director of Vehicle Electrification & Infrastructure at Ford Motor Company, told me in December that Ford’s approach is to use a manufacturing system based on popular Ford gasoline models that allows them to easily increase production as demand grows. Demand has certainly been growing! Kudos to Ford for at least meeting demand and offering plug-in cars at a cost-competitive level.

On the whole, 100% electric vehicle sales were up 67% in July 2014 compared to July 2013 in the US, and 20% for the year to date; plug-in hybrid electric vehicle sales were up 64% in July 2014, and are up 58% for the year to date; and all plug-in vehicle sales were up 66% in July 2014, and are up 37% for the year to date.