USA December 2014

Star of the Month

The Missing Piece Edition

A record 12.913 plug-ins were sold in the US last month (120k YTD, also a new record), which is the is the best result ever by a single market, and much of this result should be credited to Tesla, thanks to the AWD models, it sold a record 3.500 units, the best result for a single model in the US and the best result anywhere for a BEV, as well as a return to the US monthly leadership, the first since April '13.

Despite Toyota and Ford dragging down the market,  both the Model S , together with the new EV Best Seller in the United States, the Nissan Leaf, were responsible for almost 7.000 of those 13k record.

A mention to the good results by Daimler, the veteran Smart Fortwo ED made a new personal best, with 351 sales (And over a third of Smart US sales), while the Merc B-Class ED (326 units), is slowly winning pace, the question many ask now is: "Will it be a real fighter to the BMW i3?". C'mon Daimler, give us some lovin'!

Pl	Model	Sales
1	Tesla Model S e)	3.500
2	Nissan Leaf	3.102
3	Chevrolet Volt	1.490
4	BMW i3	1.013
5	Ford Fusion Energi	789

In the YTD ranking, there were only two last minute switches at the bottom of the table, the VW e-Golf climbed one position to #20, while the Porsche Cayenne Plug-In escaped the last place on the ranking in the last days, relegating its hyper-sports-car brother 918 to the bottom of the chart.

Speaking of full year performances, the Nissan Leaf recovered the Best Seller title it had won in 2011 (With 9.674 units then, that result would put it in #6 on this years ranking) and established a new worldwide YTD record to beat: 30.200 units. The japanese hatch is more and more the golden standard when it comes to electric cars.

In Second we have the car that is still the most common plug-in in America, the Chevrolet Volt, leader in 2010, 2012 and 2013, this time it was way behind  (Some 12.000 units way behind) the leader, worst still is that it hasn't won a monthly Best Seller title in over a year (Since August '13, to be exact) and it has been losing sales since 2012 (23.461 then, 23.094 in '13, 18.805 now), the sooner the Second Generation Volt  arrives, the better.

The Model S by Tesla ended more or less with the same units of last year and with the same Bronze Medal, things were a bit bumpy this year for Tesla, with a weak summer season, but a strong year-end combined with a dismal second year half from the Prius Plug-In were enough to recover the Third Spot and even close in to the Number Two.

Looking at the manufacturers ranking, Nissan (25% Share) continued head and shoulders above the rest, with Ford in Second Place with 18% share and Chevrolet in Third (17%).

For 2015, a lot will depend on the 2nd Gen Volt and Tesla Model X launch timings, both will win many consumers and contribute extensively for the global outcome, regarding the existing models, the Leaf might see its share drop a little (It is a 2010 car, after all), while the Model S will have a strong beginning of the year (Maybe even an early leader), while the BMW i3 could win some Third spots over some months.

For a volume number to forecast in twelve months from now, i would go for 150.000 units.

Pl	USA	Dec.	YTD	%
1	Nissan Leaf	3.102	30.200	25
2	Chevrolet Volt	1.490	18.805	16
3	Tesla Model S e)	3.500	17.300	14
4	Toyota Prius Plug-In	492	13.264	11
5	Ford Fusion Energi	789	11.550	10
6	Ford C-Max Energi	659	8.433	7
7	BMW i3	1.013	6.092	5
8	Smart Fortwo ED	351	2.594	2
9	Ford Focus Electric	53	1.964	2
10	Fiat 500e	115	1.793	1
11	Cadillac ELR	118	1.310	1
12 13 14 15	Toyota RAV4 EV Chevrolet Spark EV Porsche Panamera PHEV Mercedes B-Class ED	37 131 31 326	1.184 1.145 879 774	1 1 1 1
16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23	BMW i8 Honda Accord Plug-In Honda Fit EV Kia Soul EV Volkswagen e-Golf Mitsubishi I-Miev Porsche Cayenne Plug-In Porsche 918	158 63 32 110 237 12 55 39	555 449 405 359 357 196 100 96	0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
	TOTAL	12.913	119.804	100

Source: insideevs.com