It’s time once again to take a look at plug-in electric vehicle sales in Canada.
For the month of February, it seems there’s nearly a four-way tie for first place.
Honestly, it’s just too close to declare a winner without official registrations data for the Tesla Model S. That data won’t be available for a couple of months. Our estimate for Model S sales puts its in the 30-40-unit range, right in line with 3 other plug-in electric cars for which we have official sales data for at this time.
The Chevy Volt had been the reigning champ for what seems like forever, but in October, November and December of 2014, the Nissan LEAF came out on top, but just barely.
In January, the LEAF’s reign came to an end, not entirely due to poor LEAF sales, but rather strong Model S sales.
Nissan LEAF sales checked in at 38 units in Canada in February, putting it tied for second place for the month with the Chevrolet Volt.
For 2014, LEAF sales tallied a total of 1,085 in Canada, which is more than LEAF sales in 2011, 2012 and 2013 combined.
Meanwhile, sales of the Chevrolet Volt checked in at 38 units in Canada in February, down from the 71 units sold in January.
For 2014, Volt sales equaled a total of 1,521 units, up from 931 sold in 2013 and above the Volt’s previous high of 1,225 sold in 2012.
So, either the Model S wins, or it';s a two-way tie for first between the LEAF and the Volt.
Turning our attention back to Tesla, here are the known Tesla Model S sales figures for 2014 in Canada (no official figures are available for 2015 at this time):
January: 20
February: 19
March: 119
April: 71
May: 61
June: 104
July: 48
August: 25
September: 194
October: 37
November: 26
December: 123
YTD 2014: 847
BMW i3
BMW i3
Meanwhile, sales of the BMW i3 have remained steady, but low. In February, sales checked in at 31 units, up from the 24 sold in January. For 2014, BMW sold a total of 227 i3s in Canada.
Smart Fortwo ED sales in July checked in at a rather remarkable 79 units, followed by an even more spectacular 133 sold in August. Smart ED sales then fell to only 69 in September, followed by only 9 in October, 23 in November and 26 in December. January & February sales results are not yet available for the Fortwo ED.
Here are the rest of the February’s results from the typically low-volume sellers in Canada:
Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid: Unknown at this time, no longer reported for Canada (We estimate ~3-5 units)
Mitsubishi i-MiEV: Not yet reported – 3 i-MiEVs were sold in Canada in January. We expect February’s result to be approximately the same.
Cadillac ELR: 2
Ford’s PHEV sales are unknown for January at this time. Typical monthly volume is ~ 20 C-Max Energis and ~10 Fusion Energis, but February is a slow month, so figure single digits for each of the Ford PHEVs. Likewise, Focus Electric sales are small, in the single digits most months and sometimes even zero.