March was the second best month ever on record for plug-in electric cars sales with nearly 142,000 sold (up 53% year-over-year).

The biggest markets were: China (some 59,000), Europe (some 41,000) and the U.S. (some 26,000).

Some 60% of the plug-in car sold in March were of the all-electric variety.

Global Plug-In Electric Car Sales In March 2018 (data source: EV Sales Blog)

Top Selling Plug-In Cars

2018 Nissan LEAF

The outstanding Nissan LEAF set a record of 11,105 in March and shot the Japanese car maker up to #1 for the month and for the quarter.

We expect that Nissan will now sell more than 10,000 LEAFs regularly month after month.

The Chinese leader, the BAIC EC-Series, now needs to be satisfied with second place (7,818) for the year (and third for the month after the Tesla Model S, which thanks to 8,274 sold in March, is now in fifth YTD)

The third best-selling car YTD is the Toyota Prius Plug-In (aka Prime), but 5,140 sales in March will likely not be enough to remain in the #3 spot later in the year.

BYD Song (PHEV) with 4,685 sold decreased to fourth YTD.

Tesla should be happy because the Model S (8,274) and Model X (7,115) increased in March, but the Model 3 (3,820) has now dropped out of the top ten YTD (#12 - 8,180).

World’s Top 10 Selling Plug-In Cars – March 2018 (data source: EV Sales Blog)

Top Plug-In Car Manufacturers

The big news for March is that Tesla becomes the #1 manufacturer (in terms of sales) both for the month (19,209) and for the year.

Three more manufacturers exceeded 10,000 last month:

BYD: 13,115

BMW: 10,513

Nissan: 11,203

) wasn't able to keep the pace in March, while others like Volkswagen (8,301) and Renault (5,734) noted relatively strong individual results.

Our thanks to EV Sales Blog for tallying up and estimating the individual sales by OEM