Electric Car Sales in Canada Reach 1% Milestone

October 12, 2017

The market share of plug-in electric cars in Canada appears to have topped 1 percent for the first time ever last month.

Final sales totals won’t be available until registration data arrives later this month.

We estimate that just under 1,900 vehicles with plugs were sold last month, compared to roughly 187,000 sales across the country of all new vehicles. 

We got that total by adding reported September sales (943) to an approximation of 400 Tesla sales (June’s number, since like September it was a quarter-ending month), plus the average of the last four months’ estimated registrations and sales estimates for all other plug-in models (550).

The charge was—as usual—led by the Chevy Volt, whose 483 sales set a new monthly plug-in electric vehicle record for the country. That number beat the 446 Volts sold last September.

Still, it’s a sign of the modest size of the electric-car segment that its leader still isn’t among the country’s top 100 best-selling vehicles. The Volt ranked 119th in Canada last year, according to GoodCarBadCar.net.

The Chevrolet Bolt EV, the Volt’s all-electric cousin, enjoyed its second-best sales month in September: 227 Bolts were sold, nearly triple the 82 delivered in August.

March remains the high-water mark for the Bolt EV at 241 units. Nevertheless, the Bolt could outsell both the Tesla Model S and Model X this year, despite its late-January introduction.

With Canadian inventories of the first-generation Leaf dwindling before its successor arrives early next year, Nissan sold only 19 Leafs in September.

Read the full article by Matthew Klippenstein here:

http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1113120_plug-in-electric-car-sales-in-canada-sep-2017-1-percent-now-99-percent-to-go