The Chevrolet Volt showed that it is still a force to be reckoned with in January, eclipsing all-time sales records for the month!

January is supposed to be the weakest and hardest month of the year in the US to sell plug-in vehicles.

Apparently someone forgot to tell that to GM and Toyota.

Despite still being production-limited from Japan, the new Toyota Prius Prime let it be known it would be competing for "Plug-In Sales Crown" For 2017 In America

Heading into the first month of 2017, the best result any one model had ever accomplish during January historically was 1,252 sales (achieved by the Nissan LEAF in 2014), but that changed in 2017 as two models bested the number...one by a lot, while a 3rd offering just missed the old benchmark.

For the month, an estimated 10,615 plug-ins where sold, good for an impressive gain of 70.6% from the ~6,221 moved in 2016.

If one was to apply that gain to every month in 2017, we would see a year end total of some 271,000 EVs sold in America (vs 159k sold in 2016). Here's hoping!

Leading the way was GM's original plug-in vehicle, the Chevrolet Volt with 1,611 sales - a 62% improvement over 2016's result, and almost 30% better than the former January record holder.

Not to be outdone, two newcomers finished in 2nd and 3rd place:

Toyota Prius Prime - 1,366 sales (which also represented almost 20% of overall Prius sales)

- 1,366 sales (which also represented almost 20% of overall Prius sales) Chevrolet Bolt EV - 1,162 sales in its first full month on the market

2017 Monthly Sales Chart For The Major Plug-In Automakers - *Estimated Tesla Sales Numbers – Reconciled on Quarterly Totals, ** Fiat/Hyundai-Kia Do Not Report Sales Directly, Estimate Based on State/Rebate Data

Other Statistical Points of Interest from January 2017

The Chevrolet Bolt EV sold almost 1,200 copies in its first full month of availability in January

A look at the sales by model for each plug-in offering in the US (for a more details model-by-model look at the numbers, check out our full January sales recap here ):

Top Manufacturers Of Plug-In Vehicles:

General Motors - 2,778 Tesla Motors - 1,650 Toyota - 1,366 Ford - 1,135 VW Group - 898 BMW - 841 Nissan - 772

PHEV

PHEV – 5,857 – 55.2% BEV – 4,758 -44.8%

(*) estimated

The full monthly recap by individual plug-in (all-time) can be found on our Monthly Scorecard here.