January 2013 Electric Vehicle Sales Continue To Short Out

Washington DC February 4, 2013. The NADA online newsletter reported that according to the Detroit News electric vehicles and plug-in electric hybrids are off to a tough sales start in January, after a disappointing 2012.

General Motors Co. said Friday sales of its plug-in hybrid Chevrolet Volt rose 89 percent to 1,140 over January 2012. But that's still much lower than recent months — including the 2,633 Volts sold in December. It's the fewest Volts sold in a month since February 2012, when GM sold just 1,023.

Toyota said January sales of the Prius plug-in fell from 1,361 in December to 874 in January. Nissan Motor Co., meanwhile, said January 2013 Leaf EV sales fell 3.8 percent over 2012 to 650 — and by more than half over December's 1,489 sold.

Ford Motor Co. said it was offering hefty lease discounts of more than $10,000 on its slow-selling electric Focus. The Dearborn automaker said on its website that it has dropped the base price of the Focus EV by $2,000 for cash sales and is offering up to $10,750 off for three-year-leases. The automaker sold just 685 of the 1,627 Focus EVs it built in 2012, making it one of the poorest performers among electric vehicles on the market.