A lot of news on electric vehicles in the last month, but the top story of the month has to be that electric-vehicle sales set new records across the country in October.
The ‘Built by Michigan’ plug-in hybrid Chevy Volt, broke its monthly sales record the third month in a row, selling 2,961 vehicles in October. In the first 10 months of the year, General Motors Co. has sold 19,309 Volts, up 286 percent from the same period last year.
Other companies are also reporting record sales in October, and while the numbers are small, they’re promising.
Ford sold 118 ‘Built by Michigan’ Focus Electrics in October, totaling nearly 300 of the cars sold this year and they only went on sale in June. And in the first month Ford C-Max Energi hybrid was on the market, they sold 144 of the plug-ins.
The evidence is becoming clearer every month, that consumers are embracing these new vehicles.
The long and short of it? Sales of electric cars tripled during their second year on the market, far outperforming the sales of hybrids during their own second year on the market, back in 2001. The most popular electric-drive vehicle, the Chevy Volt, is outselling half of all cars on the market today.
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Ford’s newest entry in the plug-in hybrid market, the C-Max Energi, tops the pack in fuel-economy according to a recent rating by the Environmental Protection Agency.
The “Built by Michigan” C-Max Energi was given a rating of 108 miles per gallon equivalent (MPGe) for city use, along with a 100 MPGe overall rating.
In announcing the results, Ford noted the that C-Max Energi’s MPGe outpaces the Toyota Prius plug-in by 5 MPGe.
In fact, the C-Max Energi and other vehicles built at the Michigan Assembly Plant are helping Ford “complete a lineup that beats Toyota in fuel economy in every segment where they both compete.” In addition to the $550 million that Ford invested to convert MAP into a flexible factory, the company added a third crew of 1,200 workers in May, bringing total employment there to 5,170.
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