January EV Sales Rise 70% In US, As Chevrolet Bolt EV, Volt and Toyota Prius Prime Soar

January is supposed to be the weakest and hardest month of the year in the US to sell plug-in vehicles.

Apparently someone forgot to tell that to GM and Toyota.

Heading into the first month of 2017, the best result any one model had ever accomplish during January historically was 1,252 sales (achieved by the Nissan LEAF in 2014), but that changed in 2017 as two models bested the number…one by a lot, while a 3rd offering just missed the old benchmark.

For the month, an estimated 10,615 plug-ins where sold, good for an impressive gain of 70.6% from the ~6,221 moved in 2016.

If one was to apply that gain to every month in 2017, we would see a year end total of some 271,000 EVs sold in America (vs 159k sold in 2016). Here’s hoping!

Leading the way was GM’s original plug-in vehicle, the Chevrolet Volt with 1,611 sales – a 62% improvement over 2016’s result, and almost 30% better than the former January record holder.

Not to be outdone, two newcomers finished in 2nd and 3rd place:

  • Toyota Prius Prime – 1,366 sales (which also represented almost 20% of overall Prius sales)
  • Chevrolet Bolt EV – 1,162 sales in its first full month on the market and it was only being sold in 2 states. Just wait for full USA rollout.

InsideEVs