Saturday, June 6, 2015

Plugin Vehicle Sales Flatline



The results are out on plug in vehicle sales in the USA.  Insideevs has reported May 2015 sales.

Total year to date sales for 2015 are a paltry 43,973 only up a smidgen over the 43,928 that were sold in 2014 for the same period of time.  Lots of excuses from the gurus of green that new models will launch later in the year and the last four months will be a blowout while the first eight months the EV industry is just marking time.  My take is that there is a niche market for plugins that equals approximately 1% of all vehicles.  Kind of like the talk about the 1% we often hear about.

What is concerning is that car sales are down 1.3% for the first five months of 2015 and truck sales are up 10%.  Total light vehicle sales are up 4.5% year on year for the first five months.  This also means that EVs as a percentage of total vehicles sold has dropped in 2015.

Total Car. -1.3%
2015 = 3,266,000
2014 = 3,307,000

Total Truck +10%
2015 = 3,780,000
2014 = 3,436,000

Total Light Vehicles +4.5%
2015 = 7,045,000
2014 = 6,743,000



Essentially the fleet that has been sold in the first five months of 2015 will get lower MPG than the corresponding fleet that was sold in the five months of 2014.  This is due to trucks attaining lower MPG than cars.  The use of gasoline in the first five months of 2015 is also up by 3% compared with last year.  The answer why this is happening is that gasoline is far less expensive than last year.  DR. Moniz will put some spin on his all of the above energy strategy, but the simple fact is when gas is cheaper, yanks like tanks.  

6 comments:

  1. Good post. In Georgia where I live the state gives a $5000 rebate on EVs in addition to the federal rebate of $7500. Georgia is the number 2 state in the Union for EV sales. Georgia's $5000 giveaway expires July 1 this year. So EV sales in Georgia will plummet after July 1.

    James Rust, professor

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  2. Prof Rust it makes no sense to buy a tesla in Georgia. The grid has high CO2 emissions and a Prius is much greener. Also the heavy load on the AC in summer and the heavy load on the heater in winter do not help. I guess Elon got a peach of a deal in your state.

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  3. Sorry, central planners: market forces rule again.
    Market = people making decisions.

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  4. Yes people want range at an affordable cost.

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  5. Yes people want range at an affordable cost.

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