GM, Nissan Plug-In Deals Power Battery Car Sales Jump

General Motors Co. (GM) and Nissan Motor Co. (7201), the biggest sellers of rechargeable cars, posted record U.S. plug-in sales in August as their low-cost leases pushed battery-vehicle deliveries this year past 2012’s tally.
GM delivered 3,351 Chevrolet Volt plug-in sedans last month, up 18% from a year earlier, and Nissan’s all-electric Leaf hatchback sales more than tripled to 2,420, the companies said Sept. 4. U.S. plug-in hybrid and battery car sales totaled 57,976 in 2013’s first eight months, more than the 51,938 for all of last year, data compiled by Bloomberg and Autodata Corp. show.
Initially sluggish sales of rechargeable cars are accelerating on cheap leases and price reductions. GM, Nissan and Honda Motor Co. were already touting leases on plug-ins of $199 to $299 a month when Toyota Motor Corp. in August added a $299 a month deal for its slow-selling RAV4 EV, powered by aTesla Motors Inc. (TSLA) powertrain. It also set a sales record last month.
“It just becomes a matter of how much money you’re going to throw at it,” said Kevin Tynan, an analyst for Bloomberg Industries. “There’s no great change in the product or the market. But this is how you get people into the showroom to look at it.”
Through August, the Volt from Detroit-based GM leads the Leaf produced by Yokohama, Japan-based Nissan, 14,994 to 14,123.

Sales Increase

U.S. sales of electric-drive cars and light trucks --ranging from hybrids to plug-in hybrids to battery-only cars --are up 28% this year through August to at least 399,070, based on Bloomberg and Autodata figures. Toyota City, Japan-based Toyota, led by the Prius, dominates the segment with 248,134 such sales this year.
Prices of such vehicles range from $30,000 to more than $100,000 for Tesla’s premium Model S sedan before U.S. and state tax credits and government discounts.
Prius, the world’s best-selling hybrid, had a 30 percent increase last month to 27,358 units, the company said. Sales of the line, including the main hatchback version, v wagon, c subcompact and Prius Plug-in, totaled 170,866 through August. Toyota has said it plans to sell a record 250,000 this year.
“That’s more than last year’s Acura and Volvo sales combined,” Bob Carter, Toyota’s U.S. senior vice president, told reporters yesterday at an Automotive Press Association event in Detroit. “While hybrids makeup just under 4% of the auto market now, we believe the segment can and must grow.”
Ford Motor Co. (F)’s electric-drive auto sales in August almost quadrupled, rising to 8,292 from 2,137 a year ago, according to company figures. So far this year, sales of hybrids, plug-in hybrids and EVs for Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford are up 375 percent to 61,306 units, the segment’s biggest gain.
Tesla delivered 1,950 Model S electric sedans last month and 12,351 this year through August, according to estimates by Autodata that the Palo Alto, California-based carmaker doesn’t confirm.

Source : Bloomberg, by Alan Ohnsman, September 5, 2013

Prius Plug-in Hybrid Sales More-Than Double In August to 1,791 Sold

As of yet Toyota’s Prius Plug-in Hybrid is available in 14 key states, but that did not stop it in August from setting its second-best sales month of 1,791 units sold – a level to which the 50-state Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt are more accustomed.

This volume was a more-than-doubling from July’s 817 units sold, and significant in that the car has not broken past the high-900 unit mark all calendar year.
Last month’s 1,791 sold was better than its previous second-best month of November 2012 with 1,766 sold, and made for a new second-best next to October 2012 sales which consisted of 1,889 sold.
For what it’s worth, the PHV’s August 2013 sales also top last month’s Volt sales of 1,788 units, although this month the Volt smashed its record with 3,351. They also come close to the Leaf’s 1,864 Leafs sold in July, although again, Leaf outdid itself in August as well, with a new record of 2,420.

What this really means is uncertain. Frankly, August was a good month to be a car seller in America, and saw a number of records tumble in alternative and conventional segments.
And for now the Toyota is hunkered down in states that follow California’s Zero Emissions Vehicles rules, as well as a few neighboring states chosen for logistical convenience, according to Toyota’s Bob Carter, Senior Vice President, Automotive Operations, Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc.
These states are: California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia.
The car may be ordered in any U.S. state however, Carter said, but it would need to be traded from a stocking dealer in one of the core states at customer request.
In a February 2012 Toyota press release, the company stated plans were for a 50-state rollout, but we heard no whisper of those plans during our talk with Carter and other Toyota executives at a Toyota media event last week.

Toyota is otherwise bullish on the long-term forecast even if it’s not establishing high-volume levels just of yet.
The company’s intent to focus on its core strengths of hybrids and ultimately plug-in hybrids and fuel cell cars is part of its vision to maximize volume (ASAP), and not spend excessive effort on what it sees as cars with limited market potential, such as pure EVs.

Source : HybridCars, by Jeff Cobb, September 5, 2013