Plug-in electric car sales for Oct: steady before Bolt EV, Prius Prime arrival

Sales of plug-in electric cars in the U.S. continued at roughly the same pace as in previous months, at least among vehicles for which sales were reported.

The Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid continued a strong if not spectacular year, with 2,191 sales in October for a 10-month total of 18,517.

The Nissan Leaf battery-electric car, on the other hand, continued at two-thirds of the Volt’s sales rate.

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Nissan delivered 1,412 Leafs last month, for year-to-date sales of 10,650.

And in October, the Leaf passed a mark reached by the Volt in July: it has now crossed 100,000 deliveries in the U.S. since December 2010. The Leaf is now at 100,241, while the Volt total through October is 107,267.

Sales of other high-volume plug-in cars, including the Audi A3 e-tron, the BMW i3, Ford’s pair of Energi plug-in hybrids, and the Volkswagen e-Golf will be reported over the next two days.

Tesla refuses to release its delivery figures broken down by country, so we can only guess at its deliveries.

The Chevrolet Spark EV, formerly deemed a compliance car, hovers right on the edge of our high-volume definition (300 cars or more per month). 

Chevy delivered 260 of the electric minicars last month, for a 10-month total of 2,979.

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Two eagerly awaited plug-in vehicles haven’t hit the market quite yet, and they’ll likely boost next year’s sales numbers considerably.

Both 2017 models, they are the Chevrolet Bolt EV electric car, with 238 miles of rated range, and the Toyota Prius Prime plug-in hybrid.

Following the high-volume cars are a slew of vehicles, both electric cars and plug-in hybrids, with sales that average less than 300 a month (our volume cutoff these days).

2016 Volvo XC90 T8 plug-in hybrid [photo: Gary Renick, Twin Cities region]

Enlarge Photo

Those include luxury plug-in hybrid models from BMW, Cadillac, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, and Volvo. 

Low-volume battery electric models include the Mercedes-Benz B250e, the Mitsubishi i-MiEV, and the Smart ForTwo Electric Drive.

Smart is now in the middle of a model transition, with an all-new electric ForTwo to arrive next spring, following its launch last month at the Paris Motor Show.

ALSO SEE: Plug-in electric car sales in Sept: Volt steady, Leaf higher 

Finally, there are the compliance cars: the Fiat 500e (whose sales Chrysler refuses to provide) and the Ford Focus Electric (which is supposed to get a range upgrade for 2017).

The Korean makers of the Hyundai Sonata Plug-In Hybrid and Kia Soul EV also refuse to release the sales of those models.

We will update this article throughout today and tomorrow as more sales data is released.

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