USA Full Year 2012

The largest EV market in the world grew by some 300% in 2012 to 54.683 units, with last December setting an all-time record of 7.669 cars, leaving good prospects for growth this year.

2012 was Volt's year, where sales more than tripled and enabled it to win the #1 crown, leaving the runner-up at almost 11.000 units.

But despite being left in #2, it was a great launch year for the Prius Plug-In, after all it relegated last year's leader, the Nissan Leaf, to the last place of the podium. That's what you get when you can't increase sales in a growing market, Nissan...

Next was the Ford C-Max Energi, which in regard of the few months on sale, it looks to go after the top three positions, making the best seller in 2013 a four model race.

In #5 is the Tesla Model S, now finally increasing production. It remains to be seen if all that hype around the car translates in real sales, but one thing is for certain, this is a model to be followed closely this year.

Further down in the ranking there are several pure electrics with little more than symbolic sales, although the Focus Electric seems to be gaining some ground at #6 in December and #7 YTD.

Taking the risk of repeating myself a lot this year on this regard, for the first time Plug-In Hybrid sales surpassed those of  Pure Electrics, with 73% market share in 2012.

USA	Dec	YTD	%
Chevrolet Volt	2.633	23.461	43
Toyota Prius Plug-In	1.361	12.750	23
Nissan Leaf	1.489	9.819	18
Ford C-Max Energi	971	2.374	4
Tesla Model S	800	2.303	4
Fisker Karma	100	1.506	3
Ford Focus Electric	167	685	1
BMW Active E		673	1
Mitsubishi I-Miev	77	588	1
Toyota RAV4 EV	52	192	0
Smart Fortwo ED		139	0
Coda EV		100	0
Honda Fit EV	19	93	0
TOTAL	7.669	54.683	100

Source: www.insideevs.com