Last year, the electric vehicle sales in the United States reached 17,000 units, most of these cars being either the Nissan Leaf or the Chevrolet Volt. 2012 is going to be the year when more and more EV models will be introduced so at least theoretically we should see an increase in EV sales, especially since the Ford Focus Electric will become available in several areas. However, January was not a good month for these green cars, because Chevrolet sold only 603 Volts while Nissan delivered 676 Leafs.
This means that Chevrolet delivered only 39% of its December sales of 1,529 while Nissan managed to sell about 280 units less than they did in the last month of 2011. As far as Mitsubishi is concerned, they got 36 orders for the tiny “i” electric minicar. Tesla and Fisker continue to refuse publishing data regarding sales, even though the media has asked them to do so for several times.
One of the reasons why sales have been low in January is because the popularity of EVs during these cold winter months is reduced. A Chevrolet dealer said that because of the Volt’s reduced electric range when in colder temperatures, clients are not that eager to buy such a vehicle.
Source: Green Car Reports
