The year 2019, especially the second-half, has turned out to be a pretty challenging one in terms of plug-in electric car sales in the U.S. (as well as in terms of collecting sales data, which forced us to switch to quarterly reports).

The overall numbers declined noticeably, but they are not actually that bad. The fact is that 2018 was an extremely good year (due to the Tesla Model 3 ramp-up and full $7,500 federal tax credit for Tesla and GM cars), which makes it hard to beat.

According to numbers confirmed or estimated by InsideEVs, the total volume in Q4 was around 93,461 (down 26% year-over-year). The market share is below 2.2%.

Let's see how the results look on the graphs.

U.S. Plug-In Car Sales – Q4 2019

Because of the two consecutive quarters of decline, also the total sales number for the year 2019 decreased by 9% year-over-year to 329,528. The average market share was 1.9% or so.

Cumulative sales since December 2010 exceed 1.45 million.

Here is a quick look at the Tesla Model 3 sales, which stays strong this year despite only a fraction of the available federal tax credit and without a long pre-launch order backlog.

Almost every second plug-in car sold in the U.S. (48%), according to estimates, was a Tesla Model 3!

The LOL chart in Q4, besides the fact that the scale needs to be constantly increased because of the Model 3, brings also a change in the second place (Tesla Model S - 157,992 is now above Chevrolet Volt - 157,054).

The lowest position (#10) now requires 42,000 sales.

The Top 10 chart also shows how important the Model 3 is to the U.S. market, as other models were left far behind.

The retiring Chevrolet Volt is no longer in the top 10 after years of being one of the most popular choices.