June’s green car sales rose 8.8 percent from a year earlier to about 39,000 units (down from May’s 15 percent year-over-year gain), while plug-in vehicle sales climbed 29 percent from a year earlier to more than 13,000 units (they were up 45 percent for May). General Motors’ Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicle set yet another monthly record for sales with 1,642 units. Such performance offset a 9.9 percent decline in Chevrolet Volt extended-range plug-in sales, and drove GM’s green car sales up 32 percent from a year earlier to 3,755 vehicles.
Ford also performed well, as Fusion Hybrid sales more than doubled to 5,697 units and C-Max Energi demand rose 49 percent to 936 units. Overall, the Blue Oval’s green car sales climbed 23 percent from a year earlier to 8,844 units.
Meanwhile, Honda’s green car sales rose almost sixfold to 2,094 vehicles. Honda Accord Hybrid sales, which were negligible a year ago, reached 1,799 units.
And Nissan boosted sales of its Leaf electric vehicle by 37 percent from a year earlier to 1,506 units.
Such gains more than offset green car sales declines from Toyota and BMW. Toyota’s green car sales fell 11 percent from a year earlier to 17,752 vehicles. While Prius Prime plug-in hybrid sales jumped to 1,619 units from just 11 a year earlier, the four Prius variants combined for a 21 percent decline in demand to 8,735 units. Camry and Avalon Hybrid sales fell 18 percent and 43 percent from a year earlier, respectively, while Lexus hybrid sales decreased 13 percent to 1,994 units.
BMW’s green car sales dropped 24 percent from a year earlier to just 589 units, as demand fell for both the i3 EV and i8 plug-in hybrid.
For the first half of the year, green car sales rose 16 percent from a year earlier to about 231,000 units. Plug-in vehicle sales through June climbed 44 percent to more than 79,000 units.
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