Should Tesla report monthly sales like other carmakers? Poll results

2016 Tesla Model XTo those of us who cover the world of electric cars, Tesla's refusal to release its sales data in the conventional format is a continual irritant. Starting in June 2012, when the company said it didn't plan to release monthly sales because its backers didn't care, Tesla Motors has provided only partial data. While it started releasing quarterly...

Electric car sales remain ahead of hybrids after five years

Sales of plug-in electric cars vs hybrid cars in first 5 years [Consumer Federation of America]Sometimes, it's all about a chart. A recent survey of car buyers suggests that consumer interest in electric cars is rising, and is highest among young adults. They're the car buyers of the future, so that would seem to be good news for the long-term prospects of plug-in cars. DON'T MISS: Electric Car Sales? Doing Better Than The Prius Was, Thank...

U.S. passed half a million plug-in electric-car sales in September

2016 Nissan LeafModern plug-in electric cars first became available in the U.S. in December 2010, when the Nissan Leaf and the first-generation Chevrolet Volt went on sale. Shortly after that, in his 2011 State of the Union address, President Barack Obama set the goal of putting 1 million such cars on U.S. roads by 2015. Regrettably, that goal was not reached...

LG Chem: GM to sell ‘more than 30,000’ Chevy Bolt EVs next year

2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV, road test, California coastline, Sep 2016A very brief article on a single sentence uttered on Tuesday by an executive at Korean battery maker LG Chem has reverberated around electric-car circles for most of this week. The executive was vice president Kang Chang-beom, and he spoke on a conference call for financial analysts on the topic of LG Chem's third-quarter earnings. His comment has...

European electric and plug-in hybrid sales for Jan-Aug 2016

Renault Zoe electric cars on the Outer HebridesThe Renault Zoe once again maintained its position as the best-selling electric car in Europe, at least through August. As has been the case all year, the subcompact hatchback's main competition for that title was the Nissan Leaf—built by Renault's Japanese alliance partner—which once again earned the second-place spot. The Leaf...

Plug-in electric car sales in Canada, September 2016: new record?

2017 Chevrolet VoltThe past week has brought a "hat trick" of good news for Canadian plug-in electric vehicle owners. The Toronto Blue Jays made the major-league baseball playoffs, the Canadian government announced a national carbon price to come by 2018, and a spectacular September almost certainly shattered monthly electric-car sales records. DON'T MISS: U.S...

When will plug-in electric car sales exceed hybrid sales? Poll results

Jen Smith with her new 2016 Toyota Prius FourThe questions of whether and when sales of plug-in electric cars will resume their climb after a static 2015 are much on the minds of green-car advocates these days. It's taken as an article of faith that cars with plugs will grow as a proportion of the global market, ultimately supplanting large parts of the current gasoline fleet in decades to...

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

2017 Chevrolet VoltSales of plug-in electric cars in September chugged along steadily, with steady sales from both the Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid and stronger totals for the Nissan Leaf battery-electric car. Chevrolet logged 2.031 deliveries of its Volt hatchback, likely now almost all the new second-generation model, raising the year-to-date total to 16,326. That's...

Tesla delivered 24,500 electric cars in Q3, holds firm on 2016 goal

2016 Tesla Model STesla said late yesterday that it delivered roughly 24,500 electric cars during the third quarter, including 15,800 Model S sedans and 8,700 Model X utility vehicles. That total slightly exceeds estimates by at least half of the financial analysts who had projected deliveries from the Silicon Valley maker before their release. The third-quarter...