Blog of RENAULT NISSAN Alliance

Since 2011, more than 100,000 battery and plug-in electric vehicles have been sold in America. That’s some performance… especially as fewer than 20,000 were sold in that first year as the country’s car drivers took their tentative first steps towards embracing this new technology.

But last year, 2012, sales tripled to more than 50,000 and by extrapolating monthly sales it is estimated that the 100,000th milestone has already been breached. The only trouble is that no-one is quite sure where or when that sale was made!

Not that it really matters. The leading American ‘green’ website, called the sale ‘an important symbolic milestone’ adding: “Not a bad growth rate for technology that is still maturing (like personal computers in the 1980s and cellphones in the 1990s).”

According to the figures, sales of Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) – like the top selling Nissan LEAF – and Plug-in Hybrid Vehicles (PHEV) are approaching 48 per cent annual growth and more than a quarter of a million people are currently enjoying the benefits of electric transportation. What’s more, pure electric vehicles have started to outsell the plug-in hybrid versions for the first time since the current range of BEV/PHEVs hit the market.

And Nissan LEAF, which is now built in America, is doing so well that in some markets it has even been outselling all other Nissan vehicles. The EV revolution has truly begun. How long before the 250,000 barrier is broken?

See more information on Plug In America’s website.