Plug-In Vehicle Sales Solid During July

2015 Nissan Leaf (Credit: © Nissan)

Once again plug-in electric vehicle sales are on the rise in the United States, thanks to strong demand in the month of July. Americans are continuing to look for a way to cut back on their gasoline consumption or to kick the dino juice habit altogether, and automakers have been responding by increasing production and offering a growing variety of models.

The two best-selling plug-in electric vehicles for July were the Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet Volt. That shouldn’t be a surprise considering both models have been around since December of 2010 and so have established themselves quite well in the market. The Leaf came in first with 3,019 sales versus 2,020 Volts, which also marked the second time the two models have had combined sales in a single month that have surpassed the 5,000 units mark

Nissan says its No Charge to Charge promotion fueled the sales surge, which has spread to ten markets and will expand even further in the near future. Big growth was seen in Massachusetts and Maryland where new tax incentives for purchasing electric cars were launched.

Even though the Volt lagged behind the Leaf for July, the model has seen 10,635 sales during the first seven months of 2014. Still, the Volt is inching dangerously close to the total Volt sales since both models launched.

The Tesla Model S presumably sold well for the month, but considering that the new automaker doesn’t release sales results, everyone is left to speculate.

Plug-in hybrid sales for July were led by Toyota and Ford. The Prius Plug-In Hybrid logged 1,371 unit sales, which is the lowest number for the model since February of this year. Both the Ford Fusion Energi and C-Max Energi struggled during July, seeing sales of 1,226 and 831 units respectively for a marked decrease versus July of 2013. One possible explanation for the slow July sales for the plug-in hybrids was the fact that they saw a tremendous increase during June.