Nissan’s plug-in Leaf surpasses Chevy’s Volt in total sales since 2010

For more than four years, Nissan’s Leaf and Chevy’s Volt have been the highest-volume plug-in electric cars sold in the U.S.

Last month, for the first time in roughly three years, the Leaf’s total U.S. sales surpassed those of the Volt.

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With March deliveries of 1,817 Leafs, compared to 639 Volts, the Leaf surged to a total of 76,407 sold since December 2010, surpassing the Volt’s 75,231.

The 2015 Volt is on a lengthy run-out before the all-new 2016 Volt goes on sale in the second half of this year.

That car, with its 50-mile range rating, is likely to see a sales spike — depending, of course, on how Chevy chooses to price it.

Meanwhile, the battery-electric Leaf has racked up four-figure sales every single month since February 2013, when U.S.-built models started arriving at dealers from Nissan’s assembly plant in Smyrna, Tennessee.

“We celebrated two major milestones in March,” said Brendan Jones, the director of Nissan’s electric vehicle sales and infrastructure. “We reached 75,000 … Leaf sales in the U.S., and now we are America’s top-selling plug-in vehicle. Enthusiasm for electric cars continues to grow.”

The Leaf, now in its fifth model year, will be replaced roughly a year after the Volt. It’s expected to offer a range of battery packs, with the highest electric range somewhere between 140 and 200 miles.

The third-highest selling electric reported thus far is BMW’s i3, which logged 922 sales last month — close to the 1,000 monthly level it’s been hitting since last summer.

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For its part, Tesla reported that it had sold 10,030 cars in the first quarter.

Plug-in hybrids

Sales of the Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid continued at the low level they’ve logged since last summer, with 473 delivered in March.

That’s up from the previous two months’ numbers, but the plug-in Prius — which has the lowest electric range of any plug-in car sold in North America — hasn’t cracked 1,000 monthly sales since July.

Lower-volume entries

The most recent pair of German battery-electric vehicles recovered somewhat from February’s low delivery numbers.

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The Mercedes-Benz B-Class Electric Drive sold 145 in March, while the Volkswagen e-Golf was at 195.

The tiny Mitsubishi i-MiEV battery-electric minicar, meanwhile, saw March sales five times those of February. That is, 10 i-MiEVs found buyers in March versus two in February.

The $75,000 Cadillac ELR range-extended electric luxury coupe saw another 92 sales — bringing its total delivered since December 2013 to 1,627.

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Among the compliance cars, one more Honda Fit EV found a buyer in March, its first sale since last December. And four more Toyota RAV4 EVs were delivered.

Both cars are at the end of their model run, with their makers having sold sufficient numbers to meet their California zero-emission vehicle requirements.

Chevy sold 151 Spark EVs as well, bringing the total since launch to 2,040.

This story originally appeared on Green Car Reports. Copyright 2015

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