With two months of sales still remaining in the year, the Nissan Leaf broke its own record for most electric cars sold in the U.S. in a single year.
October saw deliveries of 2,589 Leafs, bringing the year-to-date total to 24,411--which exceeds the 2013 total of 22,610, the previous record.
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It also exceeds the annual sales totals for the Chevrolet Volt range-extended electric car in any of the three full years it's been on sale as well.
Nissan has sold a total of 66,533 Leafs in the U.S. over almost four years.
As for the Volt, it logged 1,439 deliveries last month, bringing its 10-month total this year to 15,979.
With the Volt now in its last model year before a complete redesign--to be introduced at the Detroit Auto Show in January--sales have plateaued over the last two years.
The Volt is still the highest-selling plug-in car in the country since its December 2010 launch, with total sales through October of 70,531 units.
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But as the model winds down, it has been selling at a rate of roughly 2,000 per month for almost two years now.
Meanwhile, BMW underscored its serious intent in electric cars by selling 1,159 of the innovative and technologically advanced BMW i3--the third month in a row it has sold more than 1,000 i3s--which brings its six-month total to an impressive 4,263.
The Munich maker also delivered 204 BMW i8 gull-winged two-seat plug-in hybrid sports coupes in only that car's third month on the market. It brings the total delivered to 271.
BMW is considered to be the third of the large global automakers--after Nissan and General Motors--to be serious about electric cars, along with startup Tesla Motors.
But sales of the Tesla Model S are not reported monthly, and are consequently the subject of much debate and speculation.
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Possibly due to the effects of September's National Drive Electric Week events, October sales are historically high for plug-in electric cars, as advocacy group Plug-In America noted in a recent blog post.
Plug-in hybrids
As well as those four vehicles, the highest-volume plug-in cars in the U.S. are the Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid and Ford's pair of Energi models, the Fusion mid-size sedan and C-Max compact five-door hatchback.
But sales of all three plug-in hybrids have fallen dramatically over the last couple of months.
Sales of the plug-in Prius were 479 in October, the third month of sales below 1,000 after six straight months of sales ranging from 1,041 to 2,692.
Year-to-date totals for the lowest-range plug-in vehicle sold in the States are 12,321--although total deliveries since inception of 37,159 keep it ahead of the Tesla Model S (estimated), at least for the moment.
Ford delivered 644 C-Max Energis and 686 Fusion Energis, whereas both vehicles were above 1,000 sales each as recently as August. The 10-month totals for those two vehicles are 7,130 and 10,009 respectively.
Following those models is a raft of lower-volume vehicles, both battery electrics and plug-in hybrids, that sell in volumes of 10 to 200 a month.
2015 Nissan Leaf
Among those, the Honda Accord Plug-In Hybrid delivered 34 units in October, bringing its year-to-date sales to 343. Since it went on sale almost two years ago, Honda has sold 869 of the Japan-built plug-in model of its well-reviewed Accord Hybrid.
The Cadillac ELR range-extended electric luxury coupe logged sales of 152, bringing its 10-month total over the 1,000 mark to 1,037.
The Porsche Panamera S E-Hybrid, the even pricier plug-in hybrid luxury sedan, reported deliveries of 97, bringing its year-to-date sales to 791.
Mercedes-Benz sold 98 of its B-Class Electric Drive compact hatchback electric cars, bringing the four-month total over 250 units.
And the Mitsubishi i-MiEV soldiered on with another 17 sales, bringing the 10-month total to 166.
The Ford Focus Electric logged 186 sales in October, bringing the year-to-date number to 1,720--and keeping the electric Focus at precisely the same pace it's sustained for two years.
And the Smart Electric Drive saw 150 deliveries, bringing the 10-month total to 1,930, and overall deliveries since the third-generation electric minicar went on sale to more than 2,850.
Compliance cars
Those include the compliance cars sold largely in California solely to meet that state's zero-emission vehicle sales mandate.
Of those, the Fiat 500e and Chevrolet Spark EV will remain on sale through this year and next, but the Honda Fit EV and Toyota RAV4 EV are reaching their required sales targets and will soon be withdrawn from the market.
Fiat refuses to break out sales of the 500e from the rest of its 500 lineup, and has consistently done so since the electric minicar went on sale in early 2013.
As for the Chevy Spark EV, 58 deliveries occurred in October, giving a 10-month total of 953--and total sold since June last year of 1,492.
The Fit EV logged 23 more sales in October, bringing its yearly-to-date number to 370 and its overall sales to 1,032--rapidly nearing the 1,100 Honda has said it will deliver.
Toyota RAV4 EV numbers down down slightly, to 97 in October, bringing year-to-date sales to 1,064--and the total sold overall to 2,352. This one, too, is rapidly nearing its announced sales cap of 2,600.
Two new options, only one sales result
Finally, October was also the the first month of sales for two additional electric cars: One single 2015 Volkswagen e-Golf was sold, and sales of the Kia Soul EV also began last month.
James Hope, Kia's national manager of product communications, refused to break out sales of the electric Soul--following the company's precedent of refusing to say how many hybrid Sonatas it sells.
That puts Kia into the dubious company of Fiat Chrysler, which also refuses to disclose sales of its Fiat 500e compliance car.
Chrysler, however, has at least been upfront about its intense dislike of being forced to sell electric cars to meet California regulations.
With consumer excitement among electric-car buyers over the Soul EV's more capacious interior and 93-mile electric range, Kia's refusal seems more puzzling.
Together, the VW e-Golf and Soul EV bring the total number of plug-in electric vehicles on sale (at least in California) to 21.
This article will be updated regularly throughout today and tomorrow as sales results for October come in from the various carmakers.
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