Plug-in electric vehicles in the United States

For motor vehicles with a rechargeable battery that cannot be charged from the electric grid, see hybrid electric vehicles in the United States.

The all-electric Nissan Leaf is the all-time top selling plug-in electric vehicle in the U.S. with cumulative sales of 85,952 units through September 2015.

The fleet of plug-in electric vehicles in the United States is the largest in the world, with over 373,000 highway legal plug-in electric cars sold in the country since 2008 through September 2015, and representing about 36% of the global stock. California is the largest plug-in car regional market in the country, with almost 174,000 units sold between December 2010 and September 2015, representing 47.2% of all plug-in cars sold in the U.S. since 2010. The U.S. market share of plug-in electric passenger cars increased from 0.14% in 2011 through 0.37% in 2012 to 0.62% in 2013. The segment reached a market share of 0.72% in 2014 and fell to 0.62% of new car sales during the first nine months of 2015.

As of November 2015, there are 27 highway legal plug-in cars available in the American market from 13 car manufacturers, plus several models of electric motorcycles, utility vans and neighborhood electric vehicles (NEVs). As of September 2015, cumulative sales are led by the Nissan Leaf all-electric car with 85,952 units, followed by the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid with 82,261 units. Ranking next is the all-electric Tesla Model S with about 55,520 units, and the Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid with 42,136 units.

The Energy Improvement and Extension Act of 2008 granted tax credits for new qualified plug-in electric vehicles. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) also authorized federal tax credits for converted plug-ins. The federal tax credit for new plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) is worth between US$2,500 and US$7,500 depending on battery capacity. As of November 2014, a total of 37 states and Washington, D.C. have established incentives and tax or fee exemptions for BEVs and PHEVs, or utility-rate breaks, and other non-monetary incentives such as free parking and high-occupancy vehicle lane access. The U.S. government also has pledged US$2.4 billion in federal grants to support the development of next-generation electric cars and batteries, and US$115 million for the installation of electric vehicle charging infrastructure in 16 different metropolitan areas around the country. As of March 2013, the United States had 5,678 charging stations across the country, led by California with 1,207 stations (21.3%). In terms of public charging points, there were 19,472 public outlets available across the country by the end of December 2013, again led by California with 5,176 (26.6%) public charging points.

In his 2011 State of the Union address, President Barack Obama set the goal for the U.S. to become the first country to have 1 million electric vehicles on the road by 2015. Considering the actual slow rate of PEV sales, since mid-2012 several industry observers have concluded that this goal is unattainable. The Governor of California, Jerry Brown, issued an executive order in March 2012 that established the goal of getting 1.5 million zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) on California roads by 2015. In September 2014, the Charge Ahead California Initiative set the additional goal to have at least 1 million zero-emission vehicles and near-zero-emission vehicles in California by January 1, 2023.

Government support

President Bush with A123Systems CEO on the White House South Lawn examining a Toyota Prius converted to plug-in hybrid with Hymotion technology.

In his 2011 State of the Union address, President Barack Obama set the goal for the U.S. to become the first country to have 1 million electric vehicles on the road by 2015. This goal was established based on forecasts made by the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE), using production capacity of PEV models announced to enter the U.S. market through 2015. The DoE estimated a cumulative production of 1,222,200 PEVS by 2015, and was based on manufacturer announcements and media reports accounting production goals for the Fisker Karma, Fisker Nina, Ford Transit Connect, Ford Focus Electric, Chevrolet Volt, Nissan Leaf, Smith Newton, Tesla Roadster, Tesla Model S and Th!nk City. Considering that actual PEV sales have been lower than initially expected, as of early 2013, several industry observers have concluded that this goal is unattainable. According to a July 2012 study by Pike Research, cumulative sales will reach the 1 million goal set by the Obama Administration only in 2018.

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

President Barack Obama pledged US$2.4 billion in federal grants to support the development of next-generation electric vehicles and batteries. $1.5 billion in grants to U.S. based manufacturers to produce highly efficient batteries and their components; up to $500 million in grants to U.S. based manufacturers to produce other components needed for electric vehicles, such as electric motors and other components; and up to $400 million to demonstrate and evaluate plug-in hybrids and other electric infrastructure concepts—like truck stop charging station, electric rail, and training for technicians to build and repair electric vehicles (greencollar jobs).

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom at the opening of the public plug-in charging stations in front of San Francisco City Hall in 2009

In March 2009, as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the U.S. Department of Energy announced the release of two competitive solicitations for up to $2 billion in federal funding for competitively awarded cost-shared agreements for manufacturing of advanced batteries and related drive components as well as up to $400 million for transportation electrification demonstration and deployment projects. This initiative aimed to help meet President Barack Obama's goal of putting one million plug-in electric vehicles on the road by 2015.

In 2008, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed and Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums announced a nine-step policy plan for transforming the Bay Area into the "Electric Vehicle (EV) Capital of the U.S.". Other local and state governments have also expressed interest in electric cars.

A 2013 study published in the journal Energy Policy explored the relative benefits of a vehicle-charging network and plug-in hybrid vehicles with larger batteries. Across the battery-capacity and charging-infrastructure scenarios examined, the lowest-cost solution is for more drivers to switch to traditional hybrid electrics or low-capacity plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs). Installing charging infrastructure would provide lower gasoline savings per dollar spent than paying for increased PHEV battery capacity. In addition, the study determined that current federal subsidies are "not aligned with the goal of decreased gasoline consumption in a consistent and efficient manner."

Tax credits

See also: Government incentives for plug-in electric vehicles in the U.S.

New plug-in electric vehicles

President Barack Obama behind the wheel of a new Chevrolet Volt during his tour of the General Motors Auto Plant in Hamtramck, Michigan in 2010.

Federal incentives

First the Energy Improvement and Extension Act of 2008, and later the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (ACES) granted tax credits for new qualified plug-in electric drive motor vehicles. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) also authorized federal tax credits for converted plug-ins, though the credit is lower than for new PEVs.

As defined by the 2009 ACES Act, a PEV is a vehicle which draws propulsion energy from a traction battery with at least 5 kwh of capacity and uses an offboard source of energy to recharge such battery. The tax credit for new plug-in electric vehicles is worth US$2,500 plus US$417 for each kilowatt-hour of battery capacity over 5 kwh, and the portion of the credit determined by battery capacity cannot exceed US$5,000. Therefore, the total amount of the credit allowed for a new PEV is US$7,500.

The new qualified plug-in electric vehicle credit phases out for a PEV manufacturer over the one-year period beginning with the second calendar quarter after the calendar quarter in which at least 200,000 qualifying vehicles from that manufacturer have been sold for use in the United States. For this purpose cumulative sales are accounted after December 31, 2009. Qualifying PEVs are eligible for 50% of the credit if acquired in the first two quarters of the phase-out period, and 25% of the credit if bought in the third or fourth quarter of the phase-out period. Both the Nissan Leaf electric vehicle and the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid, launched in December 2010, are eligible for the maximum $7,500 tax credit. The Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid, released in January 2012, is eligible for a US$2,500 tax credit due to its smaller battery capacity of 5.2 kWh.

State incentives

As of November 2014, a total of 37 states and Washington, D.C. have established incentives and tax or fee exemptions for BEVs and PHEVs, or utility-rate breaks, and other non-monetary incentives such as free parking and high-occupancy vehicle lane access regardless of the number of occupants. In California, for example, the Clean Vehicle Rebate Project (CVRP) was established to promote the production and use of zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs). Eligible vehicles include only new Air Resources Board-certified or approved zero-emission or plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. Among the eligible vehicles are neighborhood electric vehicles, battery electric, plug-in hybrid electric, and fuel cell vehicles including cars, trucks, medium- and heavy-duty commercial vehicles, and zero-emission motorcycles. Vehicles must be purchased or leased on or after March 15, 2010. Rebates initially of up to US$5,000 per light-duty vehicle, and later lowered to up to US$2,500, are available for individuals and business owners who purchase or lease new eligible vehicles. Certain zero-emission commercial vehicles are also eligible for rebates up to US$20,000.

New proposals

A 2014 proposal to increase the maximum tax credit for plug-in electric vehicles to US$10,000, would not apply to luxury vehicles with a sales price of over US$45,000, such as the Cadillac ELR (shown) and the Tesla Model S.

Several separate initiatives have been pursued unsuccessfully at the federal level since 2011 to transform the tax credit into an instant cash rebate. The objective of these initiatives is to make new qualifying plug-in electric cars more accessible to buyers by making the incentive more effective. The rebate would be available at the point of sale allowing consumers to avoid a wait of up to a year to apply the tax credit against income tax returns.

In March 2014 the Obama Administration included a provision in the FY 2015 Budget to increase the maximum tax credit for plug-in electric vehicles and other advanced vehicles to US$10,000, over the current US$7,500. However, the new maximum tax credit would not apply to luxury vehicles with a sales price of over US$45,000, such as the Tesla Model S and the Cadillac ELR, which would be capped at US$7,500. According to the Treasury Department, the proposal intends to transform the existing tax credit into a rebate available at the point of sale that will be claimable by dealers and passed along to the consumers. The proposal also seeks to remove the 200,000 vehicle cap per manufacturer after which the credit phases out over a year. Instead, the incentives would begin to phase out starting in 2019 for all manufacturers, and the credit would be completely phased out by 2022, and fall to 75% of the current credit starting in 2019. Despite President Barack Obama's unsuccessful attempts to raise the tax credit to US$10,000 in his previous three annual budgets, the proposal was included again in the FY 2016 Budget.

Charging equipment

Until 2010 there was a federal tax credit equal to 50% of the cost to buy and install a home-based charging station with a maximum credit of US$2,000 for each station. Businesses qualified for tax credits up to US$50,000 for larger installations. These credits expired on December 31, 2010, but were extended through 2013 with a reduced tax credit equal to 30% with a maximum credit of up to US$1,000 for each station for individuals and up to US$30,000 for commercial buyers.

EV Everywhere Challenge

On March 7, 2012, President Barack Obama launched the EV Everywhere Challenge as part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Clean Energy Grand Challenges, which seeks to solve some of the U.S. biggest energy challenges and make clean energy technologies affordable and accessible to the vast majority of American households and businesses. The EV Everywhere Challenge has the goal of advancing electric vehicle technologies to have the country, by 2022, to produce a five-passenger electric vehicle that would provide both a payback time of less than five years and the ability to be recharged quickly enough to provide enough range for the typical American driver.

DoE graph showing how meeting EV Everywhere targets will significantly lower PEV 5-year cost of ownership (purchase cost plus fuel).

In January 2013 the Department of Energy (DoE) published the "EV Everywhere Grand Challenge Blueprint," which set the technical targets of the PEV program to fall into four areas: battery research and development; electric drive system research and development; vehicle lightweighting; and advanced climate control technologies. The DoE set several specific goals, established in consultation with stakeholders through a series of workshops held during the second half of 2012. The key goals to be met over the next five years to make plug-in electric vehicles competitive with conventional fossil fuel vehicles are:

• Cutting battery costs from their current US$500/kWh to US$125/kWh
• Eliminating almost 30% of vehicle weight through lightweighting
• Reducing the cost of electric drive systems from US$30/kW to US$8/kW

Achieving these goals in the next five years will result in an automotive propulsion battery with five-times the present range capacity, costing one-fifth present lithium-ion batteries. The DoE aim is to level the purchase plus operating (fuel) cost of an all-electric vehicle with a 280 mi (450 km) range with the costs of an internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle of similar size. The DoE expects than even before the latter goals are met, the 5-year cost of ownership of most plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and of all-electric vehicles with shorter ranges, such as 100 mi (160 km), will be comparable to the same cost of ICE vehicles of similar size.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu announcing the new Workplace Charging Challenge at the 2013 Washington Auto Show.

In order to achieve these goals, the DoE is providing up to US$120 million over the next five years to fund the new Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR), a research center led by the Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago. JCESR is a consortium of five DOE national labs, five universities, and four private-sector enterprises, and it is being likened to the Manhattan Project of battery technology.

An initial progress report for the initiative was released in January 2014. Four key successes of the first year of the initiative were reported:

• DOE research and development reduced the cost of electric drive vehicle batteries to US$325/ kWhr, 50% lower than 2010 costs.
• In the first year of the Workplace Charging Challenge, more than 50 U.S. employers joined the Challenge and pledged to provide charging access at more than 150 sites.
• DOE investments in EV Everywhere technology topped US$225 million in 2013, addressing key barriers to achieving the Grand Challenge.
• Consumer acceptance of electric vehicles grew: 97,000 plug-in electric vehicles were sold in 2013, nearly doubling 2012 sales.

Workplace Charging Challenge

In January 2013, during the Washington Auto Show, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced an initiative to expand the EV Everywhere program with the “Workplace Charging Challenge.” This initiative is a plan to install more electric vehicle charging stations in workplace parking lots. There are 21 founding partners and ambassadors for the program, including Ford, Chrysler, General Motors, Nissan, Tesla Motors, 3M, Google, Verizon, Duke Energy, General Electric, San Diego Gas & Electric, Siemens, Plug In America, and the Rocky Mountain Institute. The initiative's target is to increase the number of U.S. employers offering workplace charging by tenfold in the next five years. Initially, the DoE will not provide funding for this initiative.

U.S. military

The first six neighborhood electric vehicles delivered to the U.S. Army in January 2009 as part of its plan to lease more than 4,000 of the vehicles.

The U.S. Army announced in 2009 that it will lease 4,000 Neighborhood Electric Vehicles (NEVs) within three years. The Army plans to use NEVs at its bases for transporting people around the base, as well as for security patrols and maintenance and delivery services. The Army accepted its first six NEVs at Virginia's Fort Myer in March 2009 and will lease a total of 600 NEVs through the rest of the year, followed by the leasing of 1,600 NEVs for each of the following two years. With a full eight-hour recharge, the NEVs can travel 30 miles (48 km) at a top speed of 25 mph (40 km/h).

Chevrolet Volt delivered as part of the U.S. Department of Defense and General Services Administration Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles Pilot project.

U.S. Air Force officials announced, in August 2011, a plan to establish Los Angeles Air Force Base, California, as the first federal facility to replace 100% of its general purpose fleet with plug-in electric vehicles. As part of the program, all Air Force-owned and -leased general purpose fleet vehicles on the base will be replaced with PEVs. There are approximately 40 eligible vehicles, ranging from passenger sedans to two-ton trucks and shuttle buses. The replacement PEVs include all-electric, plug-in hybrids, and extended-range electric vehicles. The initiative would not include force protection, tactical and emergency response vehicles. The program is also subject to environmental review. Electrification of Los Angeles AFB's general purpose fleet is the first step in a Department of Defense effort to establish strategies for large-scale integration of PEVs.

By May 2013, it was announced that, as part of a test program created in January 2013, 500 plug-in electric vehicles with vehicle-to-ground (V2G) technology would be in use at six military bases, purchased using an investment of $20 million. If the program succeeds, there will be 3,000 V2G vehicles in 30 bases.

International cooperation

Building on the first-ever U.S.-China Electric Vehicle Forum in September 2009, US and China unveiled the U.S.-China Electric Vehicles Initiative, which will include developing joint standards, building demonstration projects in more than a dozen cities, creating technical roadmaps, and carrying out public education projects. Both nations said they share an interest in accelerating the deployment of electric vehicles in order to reduce oil dependence, cut greenhouse gas emissions, and promote economic growth.

Operating costs and fuel economy

The following table shows the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) official ratings for fuel economy (miles per gallon gasoline equivalent) and EPA's estimated out-of-pocket fuel costs for all plug-in electric passenger vehicles rated by EPA in the United States since 2010 up to December 2015.

Fuel efficiency and out-of-pocket fuel costs for all passenger PEVs rated by EPA between 2010 and December 2015(1) (Fuel economy and operating costs as displayed in the Monroney label and the fueleconomy.gov website for model years 2011 through 2016)
Vehicle	Model year	Operating mode (AER)	EPA fuel economy ratings			Cost to drive 25 miles	Annual Fuel Cost(2) (15,000 mi)	Notes
			Combined	City	Highway
BMW i3	2014/15	All-electric (81 mi)	124 mpg-e (27 kW-hrs/100 mi)	137 mpg-e (25 kW-hrs/100 mi)	111 mpg-e (30 kW-hrs/100 mi)	$0.81	$500	The 2014/15 BMW i3 is the most fuel efficient EPA-certified vehicle of all fuel types considered in all years.
Scion iQ EV	2013	All-electric (38 mi)	121 mpg-e (28 kW-hrs/100 mi)	138 mpg-e (24 kW-hrs/100 mi)	105 mpg-e (32 kW-hrs/100 mi)	$0.84	$500	The iQ EV is only available in limited numbers for special fleet use, such as carsharing programs.
Chevrolet Spark EV	2014/15/16	All-electric (82 mi)	119 mpg-e (28 kW-hrs/100 mi)	121 mpg-e (28 kW-hrs/100 mi)	138 mpg-e (24 kW-hrs/100 mi)	$0.84	$500
Honda Fit EV	2013/14	All-electric (82 mi)	118 mpg-e (29 kW-hrs/100 mi)	132 mpg-e (26 kW-hrs/100 mi)	105 mpg-e (32 kW-hrs/100 mi)	$0.87	$500
BMW i3 REx	2014	Electricity only (72 mi)	117 mpg-e (29 kW-hrs/100 mi)	97 mpg-e (35 kW·h/100 mi)	79 mpg-e (44 kW·h/100 mi)	$0.87	$700	The EPA classifies the i3 REx as a series plug-in hybrid while CARB as a range-extended battery-electric vehicle (BEVx). The 2014/15 i3 REx is the most fuel efficient EPA-certified vehicle with a gasoline engine ever with a combined gasoline/electricity rating of 88 mpg-e (city 97 mpg-e/hwy 79 mpg-e).
		Gasoline only (78 mi)	39 mpg	41 mpg	37 mpg	$2.44
Volkswagen e-Golf	2015/16	All-electric (83 mi)	116 mpg-e (29 kW-hrs/100 mi)	126 mpg-e (27 kW-hrs/100 mi)	105 mpg-e (32 kW-hrs/100 mi)	$0.88	$550
Fiat 500e	2013/14/15	All-electric (87 mi)	116 mpg-e (29 kW-hrs/100 mi)	122 mpg-e (28 kW-hrs/100 mi)	108 mpg-e (31 kW-hrs/100 mi)	$0.88	$550
Nissan Leaf	2013/14/15/16	All-electric (84 mi)	114 mpg-e (30 kW-hrs/100 mi)	126 mpg-e (27 kW-hrs/100 mi)	101 mpg-e (33 kW-hrs/100 mi)	$0.89	$550	The 2016 model year Leaf correspond to the variant with the 24 kW-hr battery pack.
Honda Accord PHEV	2014	Electricity and gasoline (13 mi)	115 mpg-e (29 kW-hrs/100 mi)	-	-	$1.36	$950	The first 13 mi it has a combined rating of 115 mpg-e. After the first 13 mi the car functions like a regular hybrid. The Accord has a rating for combined EV/hybrid operation of 57 mpg-e.
		Gasoline only	46 mpg	47 mpg	46 mpg
Nissan Leaf	2016	All-electric (84 mi)	112 mpg-e (30 kW-hrs/100 mi)	124 mpg-e (27 kW-hrs/100 mi)	101 mpg-e (33 kW-hrs/100 mi)	$0.90	$550	Model with the 30 kW-hr battery pack.
Mitsubishi i	2012/13/14/16	All-electric (62 mi)	112 mpg-e (30 kW-hrs/100 mi)	126 mpg-e (27 kW-hrs/100 mi)	99 mpg-e (34 kW-hrs/100 mi)	$0.90	$550
Fiat 500e	2016	All-electric (84 mi)	112 mpg-e (30 kWh/100 mi)	121 mpg-e (28 kWh/100 mi)	103 mpg-e (33 kWh/100 mi)	$0.90	$550
Smart electric drive	2013/14/15/16	All-electric (68 mi)	107 mpg-e (32 kW-hrs/100 mi)	122 mpg-e (28 kW-hrs/100 mi)	93 mpg-e (36 kW-hrs/100 mi)	$0.96	$600	Third generation model. Ratings and costs are for both convertible and coupe models.
Chevrolet Volt (second generation)	2016	Electricity only (53 mi)	106 mpg-e (31 kW-hrs/100 mi)	113 mpg-e (29 kW-hrs/100 mi)	99 mpg-e (34 kW-hrs/100 mi)	$0.93	$650	The 2016 Volt has a combined gasoline/electricity fuel economy of 77 mpg-e (city 82 mpg-e/ hwy 72 mpg-e). It uses regular gasoline.
		Gasoline only	42 mpg	43 mpg	42 mpg	$1.57
Kia Soul EV	2015/16	All-electric (93 mi)	105 mpg-e (32 kW-hrs/100 mi)	120 mpg-e (28 kW-hrs/100 mi)	92 mpg-e (37 kW-hrs/100 mi)	$0.96	$600	The Soul EV has the largest all-electric range in city driving of its class, with 104 mi (167 km).
Ford Focus Electric	2012/13/14/15/16	All-electric (76 mi)	105 mpg-e (32 kW-hrs/100 mi)	110 mpg-e (31 kW-hrs/100 mi)	99 mpg-e (34 kW-hrs/100 mi)	$0.96	$600
BMW ActiveE	2011	All-electric (94 mi)	102 mpg-e (33 kW-hrs/100 mi)	107 mpg-e (32 kW·h/100 mi)	96 mpg-e (36 kW·h/100 mi)	$0.99	$600
Nissan Leaf	2011/12	All-electric (73 mi)	99 mpg-e (34 kW-hrs/100 mi)	106 mpg-e (32 kW-hrs/100 mi)	92 mpg-e (37 kW-hrs/100 mi)	$1.02	$600
Hyundai Sonata PHEV	2016	Electricity and gasoline (27 mi)	99mpg-e (34 kW-hrs/100 mi)	-	-	$1.10	$950	During the first 27 mi uses some gasoline. The actual all-electric range is between 0 to 27 mi.
		Gasoline only	40 mpg	-	-	$2.18
Chevrolet Volt	2013/14	Electricity only (38 mi)	98 mpg-e (35 kW-hrs/100 mi)	-	-	$1.05	$900	The 2013/14 Volt has a combined gasoline/electricity rating of 62 mpg-e (city 63 mpg-e/hwy 61 mpg-e) and uses premium gas.
		Gasoline only	37 mpg	35 mpg	40 mpg	$2.57
Tesla Model S	2013/14	All-electric (208 mi)	95 mpg-e (35 kW-hrs/100 mi)	94 mpg-e (36 kW-hrs/100 mi)	97 mpg-e (35 kW-hrs/100 mi)	$1.05	$650	Model with 60 kWh battery pack
Toyota Prius PHV	2012/13/14	Electricity and gasoline (11 mi)	95 mpg-e (29 kW-hrs/100 mi plus 0.2 gallons/100 mi)	-	-	$1.43	$900	After the first 11 mi the car functions like a regular Prius hybrid The 2012/14 Prius has a rating for combined EV/hybrid operation of 58 mpg-e (city 59 mpg-e/hwy 56 mpg-e).
		Gasoline only	50 mpg	51 mpg	49 mpg	$1.74
Chevrolet Volt	2011/12	Electricity only (35 mi)	94 mpg-e (36 kW-hrs/100 mi)	95 mpg-e (36 kW-hrs/100 mi)	93 mpg-e (37 kW-hrs/100 mi)	$1.08	$1,000	Both model year 2011 and 2012 have the same operating costs, but the 2011 Volt has a rating of 93 mpg-e for combined driving in all-electric mode.
		Gasoline only	37 mpg	35 mpg	40 mpg	$2.57
Tesla Model S	2013	All-electric (139 mi)	94 mpg-e (36 kW-hrs/100 mi)	93 mpg-e (37 kW·h/100 mi)	96 mpg-e (36 kW·h/100 mi)	$1.08	$650	Model with 40 kWh battery pack. This model was officially rated by the EPA but Tesla canceled its production due to lack of demand.
Tesla Model X AWD – 90D	2016	All-electric (257 mi)	92 mpg-e (34 kW-hrs/100 mi)	90 mpg-e (37 kW-hrs/100 mi)	94 mpg-e (32 kW-hrs/100 mi)	$1.11	$650	Model with 90kWh battery pack
Tesla Model X AWD – P90D	2016	All-electric (250 mi)	89 mpg-e (38 kW-hrs/100 mi)	89 mpg-e (38 kW-hrs/100 mi)	90 mpg-e (38 kW-hrs/100 mi)	$1.14	$700	Model with 90kWh battery pack
Tesla Model S	2012/13/14	All-electric (265 mi)	89 mpg-e (38 kW-hrs/100 mi)	88 mpg-e (38 kW-hrs/100 mi)	90 mpg-e (37 kW-hrs/100 mi)	$1.14	$700	Model with 85kWh battery pack
Ford C-Max Energi Ford Fusion Energi	2013/14	Electricity and gasoline (20 mi)	88 mpg-e (37 kW-hrs/100 mi)	95 mpg-e (36 kW·h/100 mi)	81 mpg-e (42 kW·h/100 mi)	$1.36	$1,050	The Energi did not use any gasoline for the first 20 mi in EPA tests, but depending on the driving style, the car may use both gasoline and electricity during EV mode. The Energi models have a combined EV/hybrid operation rating of 51 mpg-e (city 55 mpg-e/hwy 46 mpg-e).
		Gasoline only	38 mpg	40 mpg	36 mpg	$2.29
Smart electric drive	2011	All-electric (63 mi)	87 mpg-e (39 kW-hrs/100 mi)	94 mpg-e (37 kW·h/100 mi)	79 mpg-e (44 kW·h/100 mi)	$1.17	$700	Second generation model. Ratings are costs for both cabriolet and coupe models.
Audi A3 e-tron ultra	2016	Electricity only (17 mi)	86 mpg-e (38 kW-hrs/100 mi)	-	-	$1.44	$1,000	During the first 17 mi uses some gasoline. The actual all-electric range is between 0 to 17 mi.
		Gasoline only	39 mpg	-	-	$2.04
Cadillac ELR	2016	Electricity only (40 mi)	85 mpg-e (39 kW-hrs/100 mi)	-	-	$1.17	$950
		Gasoline only	32 mpg	-	-	$2.48
Mercedes-Benz B-Class Electric Drive	2014/15/16	All-electric (87 mi)	84 mpg-e (40 kW-hrs/100 mi)	85 mpg-e (40 kW-hrs/100 mi)	83 mpg-e (41 kW-hrs/100 mi)	$1.20	$700
Audi A3 e-tron	2016	Electricity only (16 mi)	83 mpg-e (40 kW-hrs/100 mi)	-	-	$1.60	$1,100	During the first 16 mi uses some gasoline. The actual all-electric range is between 0 to 16 mi.
		Gasoline only	35 mpg	-	-	$2.27
Cadillac ELR	2014/15	Electricity only (37 mi)	82 mpg-e (41 kW-hrs/100 mi)	-	-	$1.23	$1,100	The 2014 ELR has a combined EV/gasoline rating of 54 mpg-e (city 54 mpg-e/hwy 55 mpg-e).
		Gasoline only	33 mpg	31 mpg	35 mpg	$2.89
Cadillac ELR Sport	2016	Electricity only (36 mi)	80 mpg-e (43 kW-hrs/100 mi)	-	-	$1.29	$1,050
		Gasoline only	30 mpg	-	-	$2.65
Toyota RAV4 EV	2012	All-electric (103 mi)	76 mpg-e (44 kW-hrs/100 mi)	78 mpg-e (43 kW-hrs/100 mi)	74 mpg-e (46 kW-hrs/100 mi)	$1.32	$800
BMW i8	2014/15	Electricity and gasoline (15 mi)	76 mpg-e (43 kW-hrs/100 mi)	-	-	$2.19	$1,550	The i8 does not run on 100% electricity as it consumes 0.1 gallons per 100 mi in EV mode (all-electric range = 0 mi) The i8 has a rating for combined EV/hybrid operation of 37 mpg-e.
		Gasoline only	28 mpg	28 mpg	29 mpg	$3.40
Coda	2012/13	All-electric (88 mi)	73 mpg-e (46 kW-hrs/100 mi)	77 mpg-e (44 kW-hrs/100 mi)	68 mpg-e (50 kW-hrs/100 mi)	$1.38	$850
Porsche 918 Spyder	2015	Electricity only (12 mi)	67 mpg-e (50 kW-hrs/100 mi)	-	-	$1.50	$2,100
		Gasoline only	22 mpg	-	-	$4.33
BYD e6	2012	All-electric (122 mi)	62 mpg-e (54 kW-hrs/100 mi)	60 mpg-e (56 kW-hrs/100 mi)	64 mpg-e (52 kW-hrs/100 mi)	$1.62	$950
BMW X5 xDrive40e	2016	Electricity only (14 mi)	56 mpg-e (59 kW-hrs/100 mi)	-	-	$2.45	$1,700	During the first 14 mi uses some gasoline. The actual all-electric range is between 0 to 14 mi.
		Gasoline only	24 mpg	-	-	$3.31
Mercedes-Benz S550e	2015	Electricity only (14 mi)	58 mpg-e (59 kW-hrs/100 mi)	-	-	$2.34	$1,750	During the first 14 mi uses some gasoline. The all-electric range varies between 0 to 12 mi.
		Gasoline only	26 mpg	-	-	$3.06
Fisker Karma	2012	Electricity only (33 mi)	54 mpg-e (62 kW-hrs/100 mi)	-	-	$1.86	$1,750
		Gasoline only	20 mpg	20 mpg	21 mpg	$4.76
Porsche Panamera S E-Hybrid	2014	Electricity and gasoline (16 mi)	50 mpg-e (52 kW-hrs/100 mi)	-	-	$3.49	$1,850	The all-electric range is between 0 to 15 mi. The S E-Hybrid has a rating for combined EV/hybrid operation of 31 mpg-e.
		Gasoline only	25 mpg	23 mpg	29 mpg	$3.81
Porsche Cayenne S E-Hybrid	2015	Electricity and gasoline (14 mi)	47 mpg-e (69 kW-hrs/100 mi)	-	-	$2.07	$2,100
		Gasoline only	22 mpg	-	-	$4.33
McLaren P1	2014	Electricity and gasoline (19 mi)	18 mpg-e (25 kW-hrs/100 mi)	-	-	$5.38	$3,200	The P1 does not run on 100% electricity as it consumes 4.8 gallons per 100 mi in EV mode (all-electric range = 0 mi) The P1 has a rating for combined EV/hybrid operation of 17 mpg-e.
		Gasoline only	17 mpg	16 mpg	20 mpg	$5.60
Notes: (1) In November 2010, EPA introduced MPGe as comparison metric on its new sticker for fuel economy for the Nissan Leaf and the Chevrolet Volt. Before, the EPA rating for on board energy efficiency for electric vehicles was expressed as kilowatt-hour per 100 miles. The window sticker of the 2009 Mini E showed an energy consumption of 33 kW-hrs/100 mi in the city and 36 kW-hrs/100 mi on the highway (equivalent to 102 mpg city and 94 mpg on the highway). The 2009 Tesla Roadster was rated 32 kW-hrs/100 mi in city and 33 kW-hrs/100 mi on the highway (equivalent to 105 mpg city and 102 mpg highway). (2) Based on 45% highway and 55% city driving. Values rounded to the nearest $50. Electricity cost of US$0.12/kw-hr, premium gasoline price of US$3.81 per gallon (used by the Volt, Karma, BMW i3 REx, Mercedes S500e, McLaren P1 and all Porsche models), and regular gasoline price of US$3.48 per gallon (as of 12 March 2014). Conversion 1 gallon of gasoline=33.7 kW-hr.

Air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions

Electric cars, as well as plug-in hybrids operating in all-electric mode, emit no harmful tailpipe pollutants from the onboard source of power, such as particulates (soot), volatile organic compounds, hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, ozone, lead, and various oxides of nitrogen. The clean air benefit is usually local because, depending on the source of the electricity used to recharge the batteries, air pollutant emissions are shifted to the location of the generation plants. In a similar manner, plug-in electric vehicles operating in all-electric mode do not emit greenhouse gases from the onboard source of power, but from the point of view of a well-to-wheel assessment, the extent of the benefit also depends on the fuel and technology used for electricity generation. From the perspective of a full life cycle analysis, the electricity used to recharge the batteries must be generated from renewable or clean sources such as wind, solar, hydroelectric, or nuclear power for PEVs to have almost none or zero well-to-wheel emissions.

EPA estimates

Several Nissan Leafs, Chevrolet Volts and Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrids charging at a parking lot reserved for plug-in electric vehicles in California.

The following table compares tailpipe and upstream CO₂ emissions estimated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for all series production model year 2014 plug-in electric vehicles available in the U.S. market. Total emissions include the emissions associated with the production and distribution of electricity used to charge the vehicle, and for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, it also includes emissions associated with tailpipe emissions produced from the internal combustion engine. These figures were published by the EPA in October 2014 in its annual report "Light-Duty Automotive Technology, Carbon Dioxide Emissions, and Fuel Economy Trends." All emissions are estimated considering average real world city and highway operation based on the EPA 5-cycle label methodology, using a weighted 55% city and 45% highway driving.

For purposes of an accurate estimation of emissions, the analysis took into consideration the differences in operation between plug-in hybrids. Some, like the Chevrolet Volt, can operate in all-electric mode without using gasoline, and others operate in a blended mode like the Toyota Prius PHV, which uses both energy stored in the battery and energy from the gasoline tank to propel the vehicle, but that can deliver substantial all-electric driving in blended mode. In addition, since the all-electric range of plug-in hybrids depends on the size of the battery pack, the analysis introduced a utility factor as a projection of the share of miles that will be driven using electricity by an average driver, for both, electric only and blended EV modes. Since all-electric cars do not produce tailpipe emissions, the utility factor applies only to plug-in hybrids. The following table shows the overall fuel economy expressed in terms of miles per gallon gasoline equivalent (mpg-e) and the utility factor for the ten MY2014 plug-in hybrids available in the U.S. market, and EPA's best estimate of the CO₂ tailpipe emissions produced by these PHEVs.

In order to account for the upstream CO₂ emissions associated with the production and distribution of electricity, and since electricity production in the United States varies significantly from region to region, the EPA considered three scenarios/ranges with the low end scenario corresponding to the California powerplant emissions factor, the middle of the range represented by the national average powerplant emissions factor, and the upper end of the range corresponding to the powerplant emissions factor for the Rocky Mountains. The EPA estimates that the electricity GHG emission factors for various regions of the country vary from 346 g CO₂/kWh in California to 986 g CO₂/kWh in the Rockies, with a national average of 648 g CO₂/kWh.

Comparison of tailpipe and upstream CO2 emissions(1) estimated by EPA for the MY 2014 plug-in electric vehicles available in the U.S. market
Vehicle	Overall fuel economy (mpg-e)	Utility factor(2) (share EV miles)	Tailpipe CO2 (g/mi)	Tailpipe + Total Upstream CO2
				Low (g/mi)	Avg (g/mi)	High (g/mi)
BMW i3	124	1	0	93	175	266
Chevrolet Spark EV	119	1	0	97	181	276
Honda Fit EV	118	1	0	99	185	281
Fiat 500e	116	1	0	101	189	288
Nissan Leaf	114	1	0	104	194	296
Mitsubishi i	112	1	0	104	195	296
Smart electric drive	107	1	0	109	204	311
Ford Focus Electric	105	1	0	111	208	316
Tesla Model S (60 kWh)	95	1	0	122	229	348
Tesla Model S (85 kWh)	89	1	0	131	246	374
BMW i3 REx(3)	88	0.83	40	134	207	288
Mercedes-Benz B-Class ED	84	1	0	138	259	394
Toyota RAV4 EV	76	1	0	153	287	436
BYD e6	63	1	0	187	350	532
Chevrolet Volt	62	0.66	81	180	249	326
Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid	58	0.29	133	195	221	249
Honda Accord Plug-in Hybrid	57	0.33	130	196	225	257
Cadillac ELR	54	0.65	91	206	286	377
Ford C-Max Energi	51	0.45	129	219	269	326
Ford Fusion Energi	51	0.45	129	219	269	326
BMW i8	37	0.37	198	303	351	404
Porsche Panamera S E-Hybrid	31	0.39	206	328	389	457
McLaren P1	17	0.43	463	617	650	687
Average gasoline car	24.2	0	367	400	400	400
Notes: (1) Based on 45% highway and 55% city driving. (2) The utility factor represents, on average, the percentage of miles that will be driven using electricity (in electric only and blended modes) by an average driver. (3) The EPA classifies the i3 REx as a series plug-in hybrid

Union of Concerned Scientists

2012 study

The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) published a study in 2012 that assessed average greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. resulting from charging plug-in car batteries from the perspective of the full life-cycle (well-to-wheel analysis) and according to fuel and technology used to generate electric power by region. The study used the Nissan Leaf all-electric car to establish the analysis baseline, and electric-utility emissions are based on EPA's 2009 estimates. The UCS study expressed the results in terms of miles per gallon instead of the conventional unit of grams of greenhouse gases or carbon dioxide equivalent emissions per year in order to make the results more friendly for consumers. The study found that in areas where electricity is generated from natural gas, nuclear, hydroelectric or renewable sources, the potential of plug-in electric cars to reduce greenhouse emissions is significant. On the other hand, in regions where a high proportion of power is generated from coal, hybrid electric cars produce less CO₂-e equivalent emissions than plug-in electric cars, and the best fuel efficient gasoline-powered subcompact car produces slightly less emissions than a PEV. In the worst-case scenario, the study estimated that for a region where all energy is generated from coal, a plug-in electric car would emit greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to a gasoline car rated at a combined city/highway driving fuel economy of 30 mpg_-US (7.8 L/100 km; 36 mpg_-imp). In contrast, in a region that is completely reliant on natural gas, the PEV would be equivalent to a gasoline-powered car rated at 50 mpg_-US (4.7 L/100 km; 60 mpg_-imp).

The study concluded that for 45% of the U.S. population, a plug-in electric car will generate lower CO₂ equivalent emissions than a gasoline-powered car capable of combined 50 mpg_-US (4.7 L/100 km; 60 mpg_-imp), such as the Toyota Prius and the Prius c. The study also found that for 37% of the population, the electric car emissions will fall in the range of a gasoline-powered car rated at a combined fuel economy of 41 to 50 mpg_-US (5.7 to 4.7 L/100 km; 49 to 60 mpg_-imp), such as the Honda Civic Hybrid and the Lexus CT200h. Only 18% of the population lives in areas where the power-supply is more dependent on burning carbon, and the greenhouse gas emissions will be equivalent to a car rated at a combined fuel economy of 31 to 40 mpg_-US (7.6 to 5.9 L/100 km; 37 to 48 mpg_-imp), such as the Chevrolet Cruze and Ford Focus. The study found that there are no regions in the U.S. where plug-in electric cars will have higher greenhouse gas emissions than the average new compact gasoline engine automobile, and the area with the dirtiest power supply produces CO₂ emissions equivalent to a gasoline-powered car rated at 33 mpg_-US (7.1 L/100 km).

The following table shows a representative sample of cities within each of the three categories of emissions intensity used in the UCS study, showing the corresponding miles per gallon equivalent for each city as compared to the greenhouse gas emissions of a gasoline-powered car:

Regional comparison of full life cycle assessment of greenhouse gas emissions resulting from charging plug-in electric vehicles expressed in terms of miles per gallon of a gasoline-powered car with equivalent emissions
Rating scale by emissions intensity expressed as miles per gallon	City	PEV well-to-wheels carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2-e) emissions per year expressed as mpg US	Percent reduction in CO2-e emissions compared with 27 mpg US average new compact car	Combined EPA's rated fuel economy and GHG emissions for reference gasoline-powered car
Best LowestCO2-e emissions equivalent to over 50 mpg-US (4.7 L/100 km)	Juneau, Alaska	112 mpg-US (2.10 L/100 km)	315%	2012 Toyota Prius/Prius c 50 mpg-US (4.7 L/100 km)
	San Francisco	79 mpg-US (3.0 L/100 km)	193%
	New York City	74 mpg-US (3.2 L/100 km)	174%
	Portland, Oregon	73 mpg-US (3.2 L/100 km)	170%	Greenhouse gas emissions (grams/mile)
	Boston	67 mpg-US (3.5 L/100 km)	148%	Tailpipe CO2	Upstream GHG
	Washington, D.C.	58 mpg-US (4.1 L/100 km)	115%	178 g/mi (111 g/km)	44 g/mi (27 g/km)
Better Moderate CO2-e emissions equivalent to between 41 mpg-US (5.7 L/100 km) to 50 mpg-US (4.7 L/100 km)	Phoenix, Arizona	48 mpg-US (4.9 L/100 km)	78%	2012 Honda Civic Hybrid 44 mpg-US (5.3 L/100 km)
	Miami	47 mpg-US (5.0 L/100 km)	74%
	Houston	46 mpg-US (5.1 L/100 km)	70%	Greenhouse gas emissions (grams/mile)
	Columbus, Ohio	41 mpg-US (5.7 L/100 km)	52%	Tailpipe CO2	Upstream GHG
	Atlanta	41 mpg-US (5.7 L/100 km)	52%	202 g/mi (125 g/km)	50 g/mi (31 g/km)
Good Highest CO2-e emissions equivalent to between 31 mpg-US (7.6 L/100 km) to 40 mpg-US (5.9 L/100 km)	Detroit	38 mpg-US (6.2 L/100 km)	41%	2012 Chevrolet Cruze 30 mpg-US (7.8 L/100 km)
	Des Moines, Iowa	37 mpg-US (6.4 L/100 km)	37%
	St. Louis, Missouri	36 mpg-US (6.5 L/100 km)	33%	Greenhouse gas emissions (grams/mile)
	Wichita, Kansas	35 mpg-US (6.7 L/100 km)	30%	Tailpipe CO2	Upstream GHG
	Denver	33 mpg-US (7.1 L/100 km)	22%	296 g/mi (184 g/km)	73 g/mi (45 g/km)
Source: Union of Concerned Scientists, 2012. Notes: The Nissan Leaf is the baseline car for the assessment, with an energy consumption rated by EPA at 34 kWh/100 mi or 99 miles per gallon gasoline equivalent (2.4 L/100 km) combined. The ratings are based on a region's mix of electricity sources and its average emissions intensity over the course of a year. In practice the electricity grid is very dynamic, with the mix of power plants constantly changing in response to hourly, daily and seasonal electricity demand, and availability of electricity resources.

2014 update

In September 2014 the UCS published an updated analysis of its 2012 report. The 2014 analysis found that 60% of Americans, up from 45% in 2009, live in regions where an all-electric car produce fewer CO₂ equivalent emissions per mile than the most efficient hybrid. The UCS study found several reasons for the improvement. First, electric utilities have adopted cleaner sources of electricity to their mix between the two analysis. The 2014 study used electric-utility emissions based on EPA's 2010 estimates, but since coal use nationwide is down by about 5% from 2010 to 2014, actual efficiency in 2014 is expected to be better than estimated in the UCS study. Second, electric vehicles have become more efficient, as the average model year 2013 all-electric vehicle used 0.325 kWh/mile, representing a 5% improvement over 2011 models. The Nissan Leaf, used as the reference model for the baseline of the 2012 study, was upgraded in model year 2013 to achieved a rating of 0.30 kWh/mile, a 12% improvement over the 2011 model year model rating of 0.34 kWh/mile. Also, some new models are cleaner than the average, such as the BMW i3, which is rated at 0.27 kWh by the EPA. An i3 charged with power from the Midwest grid would be as clean as a gasoline-powered car with about 50 mpg_-US (4.7 L/100 km), up from 39 mpg_-US (6.0 L/100 km) for the average electric car in the 2012 study. In states with a cleaner mix generation, the gains were larger. The average all-electric car in California went up to 95 mpg_-US (2.5 L/100 km) equivalent from 78 mpg_-US (3.0 L/100 km) in the 2012 study. States with dirtier generation that rely heavily on coal still lag, such as Colorado, where the average BEV only achieves the same emissions as a 34 mpg_-US (6.9 L/100 km; 41 mpg_-imp) gasoline-powered car. The author of the 2014 analysis noted that the benefits are not distributed evenly across the U.S. because electric car adoptions is concentrated in the states with cleaner power.

2015 study

Change from 2009 to 2012 of the percentage of Americans that live in regions where powering an electric vehicle on the regional electricity grid produces lower global warming emissions than a gasoline car expressed in terms of combined cith/highway fuel economy rating. Source: Union of Concerned Scientists.

In November 2015 the Union of Concerned Scientists published a new report comparing two battery electric vehicles (BEVs) with similar gasoline vehicles by examining their global warming emissions over their full life-cycle, craddle-to-grave analysis. The two BEVs modeled, midsize and full-size, are based on the two most popular BEV models sold in the United States in 2015, the Nissan Leaf and the Tesla Model S. The study found that all-electric cars representative of those sold today, on average produce less than half the global warming emissions of comparable gasoline-powered vehicles, despite taken into account the higher emissions associated with BEV manufacturing. Considering the regions where the two most popular electric cars are being sold, excess manufacturing emissions are offset within 6 to 16 months of average driving. The study also concluded that driving an average EV results in lower global warming emissions than driving a gasoline car that gets 50 mpg_-US (4.7 L/100 km) in regions covering two-thirds of the U.S. population, up from 45% in 2009. Based on where EVs are being sold in the United States in 2015, the average EV produces global warming emissions equal to a gasoline vehicle with a 68 mpg_-US (3.5 L/100 km) fuel economy rating. The authors identified two main reason for the fact that EV-related emissions have become even lower in many parts of the country since the first study was conducted in 2012. Electricity generation has been getting cleaner, as coal-fired generation has declined while lower-carbon alternatives have increased. In addition, electric cars are becoming more efficient. For example, the Nissan Leaf and the Chevrolet Volt, have undergone improvements to increase their efficiencies compared to the original models launched in 2010, and other even more efficient BEV models, such as the most lightweight and efficient BMW i3, have entered the market.

National Bureau of Economic Research

One criticism to the UCS analysis and several other that have analyze the benefits of PEVs is that these analysis were made using average emissions rates across regions instead of marginal generation at different times of the day. The former approach does not take into account the generation mix within interconnected electricity markets and shifting load profiles throughout the day. An analysis by three economist affiliated with the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), published in November 2014, developed a methodology to estimate marginal emissions of electricity demand that vary by location and time of day across the United States. The study used emissions and consumption data for 2007 through 2009, and used the specifications for the Chevrolet Volt (all-electric range of 35 mi (56 km)). The analysis found that marginal emission rates are more than three times as large in the Upper Midwest compared to the Western U.S., and within regions, rates for some hours of the day are more than twice those for others. Applying the results of the marginal analysis to plug-in electric vehicles, the NBER researchers found that the emissions of charging PEVs vary by region and hours of the day. In some regions, such as the Western U.S. and Texas, CO₂ emissions per mile from driving PEVs are less than those from driving a hybrid car. However, in other regions, such as the Upper Midwest, charging during the recommended hours of midnight to 4 a.m. implies that PEVs generate more emissions per mile than the average car currently on the road. The results show a fundamental tension between electricity load management and environmental goals as the hours when electricity is the least expensive to produce tend to be the hours with the greatest emissions. This occurs because coal-fired units, which have higher emission rates, are most commonly used to meet base-level and off-peak electricity demand; while natural gas units, which have relatively low emissions rates, are often brought online to meet peak demand. This pattern of fuel shifting explains why emission rates tend to be higher at night and lower during periods of peak demand in the morning and evening.

Environmental footprint

In February 2014, the Automotive Science Group (ASG) published the result of a study conducted to assess the life-cycle of over 1,300 automobiles across nine categories sold in North America. The study found that among advanced automotive technologies, the Nissan Leaf holds the smallest life-cycle environmental footprint of any model year 2014 automobile available in the North American market with minimum four-person occupancy. The study concluded that the increased environmental impacts of manufacturing the battery electric technology is more than offset with increased environmental performance during operational life. For the assessment, the study used the average electricity mix of the U.S. grid in 2014. In the 2014 mid-size cars category, the Leaf also ranked as the best all-around performance, best environmental and best social performance. The Ford Focus Electric, within the 2014 compact cars category, ranked as the best all-around performance, best environmental and best social performance. The Tesla Model S ranked as the best environmental performance in the 2014 full-size cars category.

Charging infrastructure

As of March 2013, the United States had 5,678 charging stations across the country, a third of which were located in the three westernmost continental states. Deployments are led by California with 1,207 stations (21.3%), Texas with 432 stations (7.6%), Florida with 352 (6.2%), Washington with 326 (5.7%), and Oregon with 310 stations (5.5%). In terms of public charging points, there were 19,472 public outlets available across the country by the end of December 2013, led by California with 5,176 charging points (26.6%), followed by Texas with 1,599 (8.2%), and Washington state with 1,325 (6.8%). There are 592 CHAdeMO quick charging stations across the country by April 2014.

Top fifteen states ranked by number of public charging points available in the United States (as of December 2013)
State	Number of points	% Total	State	Number of points	% Total
California	5,176	26.6%	New York	693	3.6%
Texas	1,599	8.2%	Maryland	553	2.8%
Washington	1,325	6.8%	Massachusetts	546	2.8%
Florida	996	5.1%	Illinois	527	2.7%
Oregon	915	4.7%	North Carolina	524	2.7%
Tennessee	866	4.4%	Georgia/Virginia	370	1.9%
Michigan	721	3.7%	Hawaii	351	1.8%
Arizona	710	3.6%	Total U.S.	19,472
Note: The U.S. DoE Alternative Fuels Data Center counts electric charging units or points, or EVSE, as one for each outlet available, and does not include residential electric charging infrastructure. Number of public charging points as of as of 25 December 2013.

Markets and sales

Highway legal plug-in electric vehicles

See also: List of modern production plug-in electric vehicles

As of September 2015, the United States has the largest fleet of highway-capable plug-in electric vehicles in the world, with 373,007 highway legal plug-in electric cars sold since 2008. Sales are led by California with 173,811 plug-in electric vehicles delivered between December 2010 and September 2015, representing 47.2% of all plug-in cars sold in the country. As of August 2015, the U.S. is the world's leader in plug-in electric car sales with a 36.8% share of global sales, followed by China (15.9%), Japan (12.3%), Norway (6.7%), the Netherlands (6.2%), and France (6.0%). The European regions represents about 31% of global sales.

National sales increased from 17,800 units delivered in 2011 to 53,200 during 2012, and reached 97,100 in 2013, up 83% from the previous year. Cumulative plug-in electric car sales since 2008 reached the 250,000 unit milestone in August 2014. During 2014 plug-in electric car sales totaled 118,682 units, up 22.2% from 2013. Cumulative plug-in electric car sales since 2008 passed the 300,000 unit milestone in January 2015. A total of 81,675 plug-in electric cars were sold during the first nine months of 2015, down 11.3% from the same period last year.

U.S. plug-in electric vehicle cumulative sales by month by type of powertrain from December 2010 up to September 2015.

The market share of plug-in electric passenger cars increased from 0.14% of new car sales in 2011 to 0.37% in 2012 and reached 0.62% of new car sales during 2013. The plug-in segment reached a market share of 0.72% of new car sales during 2014. As plug-in car sales slowed down during the first nine months of 2015, the segment market share fell to 0.62% of new car sales, with the all-electric segment up to 0.40% from 0.37% in 2014, while plug-in hybrids declined to 0.22% from 0.34% in 2014.

As of September 2015, cumulative sales are led by the Nissan Leaf all-electric car with 85,952 units, followed by the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid with 82,621 units. The Leaf passed the Chevrolet Volt as the top selling PEV in March 2015. Both plug-in cars were released in December 2010. Launched in the U.S. market in June 2012, the Tesla Model S ranks as the third top selling plug-in electric car with about 55,520 units, followed by the Prius PHV, launched in February 2012, with 42,136 units. Ranking fifth is the Ford Fusion Energi with 24,538 units, followed closely by the Ford C-Max Energi with 23,639 units.

During 2013 sales were led by the Chevrolet Volt with 23,094 units, followed by the Nissan Leaf with 22,610 cars, and the Tesla Model S with almost 18,000 units. In 2013 the Model S was the top selling car in the American full-size luxury sedan category, ahead of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class (13,303), the top selling car in the category in 2012, and also surpassing the BMW 7 Series (10,932), Lexus LS (10,727), Audi A8 (6,300) and Porsche Panamera (5,421). During the first quarter of 2014, plug-in car sales captured a 3.0% market share of the luxury vehicle segment, of which, the Model S represented 94% of the plug-in sales. In 2014 the Leaf took the lead, with 30,200 units sold, with the Volt ranking second with 18,805, followed by the Model S with about 16,550 units. The Model S ranked as the top selling plug-in electric car in the U.S. during the first nine months of 2015, with about 17,700 units sold, followed by the Leaf with 13,630 units and the Volt with 9,264.

The best monthly PEV sales volume on record ever was achieved in May 2014, with over 12,000 units delivered, representing a market share of 0.78% of new car sales. The highest-ever market share for plug-in vehicles was achieved in October 2013 with 0.85% of new car sales. Sales during the first half of 2014 sales were led by the Nissan Leaf with 12,736 units, followed by the Prius PHEV with 9,300 units, the Volt with 8,615, the Model S with an estimated 7,400 units, and the Fusion Energi with 6,235 units.

During 2011, all-electric cars (10,064 units) oversold plug-in hybrids (7,671 units), but increased Volt sales, together with the introduction of the Prius PHV and the Ford C-Max, allowed plug-in hybrids to take the lead over pure electric cars during 2012, with 38,584 PHEVs sold versus 14,251 BEVs. As of early March 2013, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) reported that owners of 9,559 all-electric vehicles and 8,842 plug-in hybrids had applied for the state's Clean Vehicle Rebate since January 2011. However, CARB noticed that approximately 2,300 Chevy Volt’s were sold in California before the Volt became eligible for the rebate in February 2012. These figures show that plug-in hybrid electric vehicles were also outselling pure electric vehicles in California. Despite this trend, during the first half of 2013, all-electric vehicle sales outsold plug-in hybrids in California, out of 15,444 new plug-in electric vehicles sold in the state, plug-in hybrids represented a market share of 0.7% of new vehicle sales, while battery electric vehicle market share was 1.1%.

Cumulative sales of new PEVs are doing better than sales of HEVs in the United States over their respective 24 month introductory periods.

Several industry forecasts agree that plug-in hybrids will continue to outsell pure electric cars in the United States at least until 2020, as the longer driving range of PHEVs is expected to be more attractive to consumers. According to a June 2013 forecast by Navigant Research, the U.S. and Canada are the only markets anticipated to have significantly higher sales of plug-in hybrids than pure electric vehicles, at a 1.5:1 sales ratio. Nevertheless, during 2013, sales of pure electric cars (about 47,600 units) were almost even with plug-in hybrids (about 49,000 units), due to large sales of the Tesla Model S and Nissan Leaf during 2013. As of December 2014, cumulative sales of plug-in electric vehicles in the U.S. since December 2010 were led by plug-in hybrids, with 150,946 units sold representing 52.7% of all plug-in car sales, while 135,444 all-electric cars (47.3%) had been delivered to retail customers. During the first nine months of 2015, the all-electric segment grew much faster, with a total of 52,506 all-electric cars sold, up 10.8% year-on-year, while plug-in hybrid were down 33.9% year-on-year, with 29,169 units sold. These results reversed the trend, and as of September 2015, a total of 186,711 all-electric cars and 180,799 plug-in hybrids have been sold since 2010, with all-electrics now representing 50.8% of cumulative sales.

The Chevrolet Volt is the top selling plug-in hybrid in the U.S. with cumulative sales of over 82,6000 units through September 2015.

Sales of series production PEVs during its first two years in the U.S. market were lower than the initial expectations. According to a July 2012 study by Pike Research, about 410,000 PEVs will be sold between 2011 and 2015 in the United States, with cumulative sales reaching the 1 million goal set by the Obama Administration only in 2018. However, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, combined sales of plug-in hybrids and battery electric cars are climbing more rapidly and outselling by more than double sales of hybrid-electric vehicles over their respective 24 month introductory periods, as shown in the graph at the right. A more detailed analysis by the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy over the same two-year introductory periods found that except for the initial months in the market, monthly sales of the Volt and the Leaf have been higher than the Prius HEV, and the Prius PHEV has outsold the regular Prius during its 8 months in the market. Over the first 24 months from introduction, the Prius HEV achieved monthly sales of over 1,700 in month 18, the Leaf achieved about 1,700 units in month 7, the Prius PHEV achieved nearly 1,900 sales in month 8, and the Volt achieved more than 2,900 sales in month 23.

An analysis by Scientific American found a similar trend at the international level when considering the global top selling PEVs over a 36-month introductory period. Monthly sales of the Volt, Prius PHV and Leaf are performing better than the conventional Prius during their respective introductory periods, with the exception of the Mitsubishi i-MiEV, which has been outsold most of the time by the Prius HEV over their 36-month introductory periods. According to Peak Research, global sales of PEVs will surpass 1 million per year in 2017, after 7 years in the market and almost half the time it took hybrid electric vehicles to reach that sales threshold. As fuel economy standards in the U.S. have become more stringent and push automakers towards hybridization or full electrification, Bloomberg New Energy Finance forecast that 30% of new passenger vehicles in the United States will be plug-in hybrids or full battery electrics by 2030.

Regional markets

During 2013 the top selling all-electric car markets at the state level in terms of their market share of new light-vehicle registrations were Washington (1.4%), California (1.28%) and Hawaii (1.21%), while the U.S. average was 0.32%. During the first half of 2014 the leading states were Georgia (1.6%), California (1.41%) and Washington (1.13%), and the national average remained at 0.32%. In the 12 months between April 2013 and March 2014, the top selling pure electric car metropolitan markets in terms of market share were San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose (3.33%), Atlanta (2.15%), Seattle-Tacoma (1.83%), Honolulu (1.71%), and Monterey-Salinas (1.51%).

The following table summarizes the ten states and metropolitan areas leading all-electric car adoption in terms of their market share of new light-vehicle registrations or sales.

Top ten selling all-electric vehicle (BEV)
states and metropolitan areas by market share of new car sales

Rank 2014(1)	State	Market share(2) 2014 CYTD(1)	Rank 2013	State	Market share(2) 2013		Rank	Metro Area	Market share 2013-2014(3)
1	Georgia	1.60%	1	Washington	1.40%		1	San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose	3.33%
2	California	1.41%	2	California	1.28%		2	Atlanta	2.15%
3	Washington	1.13%	3	Hawaii	1.21%		3	Seattle-Tacoma	1.83%
4	Hawaii	1.04%	4	Georgia	0.94%		4	Honolulu	1.71%
5	Oregon	0.67%	5	Oregon	0.89%		5	Monterey-Salinas	1.51%
6	Utah	0.31%	6	Washington, D.C.	0.52%		6	San Diego	1.34 %
7	Colorado	0.27%	7	Colorado	0.33%		7	Santa Barbara-Santa Maria-San Luis Obispo	1.29%
8	Arizona	0.20%	8	Utah	0.31%		8	Portland	1.25%
9	Tennessee	0.19%	9	Tennessee	0.28%		9	Los Angeles	1.08%
10	Connecticut	0.19%	10	Illinois	0.25%		10	Eugene	0.86%
U.S. average		0.32%					0.38%
Notes: (1) CYTD: current year-to-date sales as of 30 June 2014 (2) New all-electric vehicle (BEV) registrations as % of total new registrations of light-vehicles only. (3) Sales of new all-electric vehicles as % of total new light-vehicle sales between April 2013 and March 2014.

A total of 52% of American plug-in electric car registrations from January to May 2013 were concentrated in five metropolitan areas: San Francisco (19.5%), Los Angeles (15.4%), Seattle (8.0%), New York (4.6%) and Atlanta (4.4%). From January to July 2013, the three cities with the highest all-electric car registrations were all located in California, Atherton and Los Altos in the Silicon Valley, followed by Santa Monica, located in Los Angeles County.

California

See also: Plug-in hybrids in California

California is the largest American car market and also the leading plug-in market in the country, with 173,811 plug-in electric vehicles registered between December 2010 and September 2015, representing 47.2% of all plug-in cars sold in the U.S. since 2010, while the state represents about 10% of all new car sales in the country. In 2014 California's PEV market share reached 3.2% of total new car sales in the state, up from 2.5% in 2013, while the national PEV market share in 2014 was 0.71%. Plug-in electric cars represented about 0.5% of the passenger fleet on the Californian roads by September 2015. Registrations of plug-in electric cars in the state in 2014 represented 50.1% of total PEV sales in the U.S. that year. During the first nine months of 2015 the state's PEV market share fell to 2.8%, with the plug-in hybrid segment dropping from 1.6% in 2014 to 1.2%, while the all-electric segment remained flat at 1.6%.

Comparison of annual sales of plug-in electric vehicles in the United States versus California between 2010 and 2014.

As of December 2014, California not only had more plug-in electric vehicles than any other American state but also more than any other country in the world, and its PEV market share of new car sales was surpassed only by Norway and the Netherlands. According to Navigant Research, the Los Angeles metropolitan area is the world's largest PEV city market, with over 15,000 PEV sales expected in 2014, and Navigant forecasts its PEV stock will grow from over 36,000 in 2014 to over 250,000 by 2023.

Goals

Governor Jerry Brown issued an executive order in March 2012 that established the goal of getting 1.5 million zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) in California by 2025. In addition, in September 2014, Governor Brown signed into law bill SB 1275 that created the Charge Ahead California Initiative, and set the goal of placing at least 1 million zero-emission vehicles and near-zero-emission vehicles on the road in California by January 1, 2023. He expects the initiative will help the state to reach the initial goal set for 2025. California's ZEV regulation was first adopted in 1990 as part of the Low Emission Vehicle Program, and it has been modified several times over the years. The ZEV program is under the responsibility of the California Air Resources Board (CARB). The program goal is to reduce the pervasive air pollution affecting the main metropolitan areas in the state, particularly in Los Angeles, where prolonged pollution episodes are frequent.

Sales

Annual registrations of plug-in electric vehicles in California increased from 6,984 units in 2011 to 20,093 in 2012, and reached 42,545 units in 2013. Plug-in car sales during 2014 climbed to 59,471 units representing 3.2% of total new passenger vehicle sales in California that year. Registrations during the first nine months of 2015 reached 44,327 units, representing a market share of 2.8%. The following table presents annual registrations and market share of new car sales for all-electric and plug-in hybrids sold in California since 2010 through December 2014.

Annual new plug-in electric vehicle registrations and market share in California
by type of plug-in (2010 - 2014)

Year	California							United States			CA share of U.S. PEV sales(3)	Ratio CA/US market shares
	All-electric	BEV market share(1)	Plug-in hybrid	PHEV market share(1)	Total PEV California	PEV market share(1)		Total PEV sales	PEV market share(2)
2010	300	0.0%	97	0.0%	397	0.0%		397	0.003%		100%	-
2011	5,302	0.4%	1,682	0.1%	6,984	0.5%		17,821	0.14%		39.1%	3.57
2012	5,990	0.4%	14,103	0.9%	20,093	1.3%		53,392	0.37%		37.6%	3.51
2013	21,912	1.3%	20,633	1.2%	42,545	2.5%		96,602	0.62%		44.0%	4.03
2014	29,536	1.6%	29,935	1.6%	59,471	3.2%		118,682	0.71%		50.1%	4.51
Total	63,040	n.a.	66,430	n.a.	129,470	n.a.		286,842	n.a.		45.1%	n.a.
Notes: (1) Market share of total new car registrations in California. (2) U.S. market share of total nationwide sales. (3) California's market share of total nationwide registrations.

California is the leading Volt market and accounted for almost 23% of Volt sales during the second quarter of 2012, followed by Michigan with 6.3% of national sales. The leading regional markets in California were San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego, all metropolitan areas notorious for their high congestion levels and where free access to high-occupancy lanes for solo drivers has been a strong incentive to boost Volt sales in the state. As of November 2011 over 60% of the Leafs sold in the U.S. were bought in California. San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose, Los Angeles, San Diego and Sacramento were among the top selling markets for Leaf sales during the first eight months of 2013. Nissan noted that in San Francisco the Leaf is among the ten top selling vehicles regardless of powertrain.

A Tesla Model S (left) and a Model X (right) charging at a Supercharger station in Gilroy, California.

California is the largest American market for the Tesla Model S. In March 2013, Tesla Motors reported the delivery of the 3,000th Model S in California, representing around 50% of total Model S sales in the U.S. As of November 2013, with the Model S available nationwide, California continued to lead U.S. sales with a 48% share of national sales. According to Edmunds.com, between January and August 2013 the Model S achieved a high market share of new car sales among the U.S. most expensive ZIP codes, as rated by Forbes. Among the top 25 wealthiest ZIP codes, the highest Model S market shares are all found in California, with Atherton ranking first in the U.S. with a 15.4% share, followed by Los Altos Hills with 11.9%, and Portola Valley with 11.2%. Edmunds' analysis also found that during this period the Model S was the most registered passenger car in 8 of the 25 most expensive American ZIP codes.

The Model S, with 8,347 units sold, ended 2013 as the third best selling luxury car in California after the Mercedes-Benz E-Class and BMW 5 Series sedans, and captured a 9.8% market share of the Californian luxury and sports segment. During the first half of 2015, with 5,148 units registered, the Model S market share reached 12.0% of the luxury and sports segment in California and ranked third in the segment after the Mercedes-Benz E-Class and BMW 5 Series sedans.

California is also the leading American market for the BMW i3, with about 3,000 units sold in the state in 2014, representing about half of total U.S. sales that year.

Incentives

Several BMW i3s with California's HOV lane access stickers. The i3 with range-extender has the green sticker while the pure electric i3 displays the white sticker.

California has been a leader in the promotion of plug-in electric vehicles as the state has in place several financial and non-financial incentives. In addition to the existing federal tax credit, PEVs are eligible for a purchase rebate of up to US$2,500 through the Clean Vehicle Rebate Project (CVRP). Also, battery electric vehicles and initially, the first 40,000 applicants that purchase or lease a plug-in hybrid meeting California’s Enhanced Advanced Technology Partial Zero Emission Vehicle (Enhanced AT PZEV), are entitled to a clean air sticker that allows the vehicle to be operated by a single occupant in California's carpool or high-occupancy vehicle lanes (HOV). The white access sticker is reserved for zero-emissions vehicles, while plug-in hybrids use the green sticker.

As of 9 May 2014, the 40,000 green stickers available had been issued. The green sticker limit was increased to 55,000 units beginning July 1, 2014, through the budget trailer bill SB 853. In September 2014, law AB 2013 raised the cap for the green stickers from 55,000 to 70,000 new plug-in hybrids. Initially, the green and white clean air stickers were set to expire on January 1, 2015, but in 2013 the expiration date for the stickers was extended to January 1, 2019. As of June 2015, a total of 68,343 green stickers had been issued by the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). In June 2015, bill AB 95 was approved by the State Legislature raising the upper limit from 70,000 to 85,000 green stickers. By December 2015, the 85,000 limited was reached. The DMV is accepting applications without payment to establish a queue for requesters should an additional amount of green decals be authorized.

California's green Clean Air Vehicle sticker for plug-in hybrids

California's white Clean Air Vehicle sticker for all-electric cars

Research performed in 2015 by the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation found that access to HOV lanes has a significant impact on plug-in car sales. Researchers linked automobile sales to a sample of more than 7,000 of the 8,057 census tracts in California for the study, including Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego and San Francisco. They looked at the number of plug-in car sales and the miles of carpool lanes within a 30 mi (48 km) radius of each census tract. The study concluded that the ability to use potentially time-saving HOV lanes prompted the purchase of more than 24,000 plug-in electric cars and hybrids in the four urban areas from 2010 to 2013, or about 40% of the total of such vehicles. The UCLA researcher concluded that without the policy giving plug-in vehicles access to HOV lanes, total plug-in sales in the same study areas would have been only 36,692 for the three-year period.

As part of a package of bills signed into law by Governor Brown in September 2014, through SB 1275 the California Air Resources Board was mandated to draft a financial plan to meet California's goal of 1 million vehicles on the road while making sure that disadvantaged communities can participate. For this purpose CARB has to change the Clean Vehicle Rebate program to provide an extra credit for low-income residents who wish to purchase or lease an electric car. CARB also should provide assistance to carsharing programs in low-income neighborhoods and install charging stations in apartment buildings in those communities. Under SB 1275, low-income residents who agree to scrap older, polluting cars will also get a clean vehicle rebate on top of existing payments for junking smog-producing vehicles.

Another bill signed into law in September 2014, AB1721, grants clean air vehicles free or reduced rates in high-occupancy toll lanes (HOT) lanes. Drivers of clean vehicles already enjoyed discounted rates in some facilities, such the toll to cross the San Francisco Bay Area bridges and to use the State Route 91 Express Lanes in Orange and Riverside Counties. AB 2565 facilitates access to charging stations by requiring commercial and residential property owners to approve installation if the charging station meets requirements and complies with the owner’s process for approving a modification to the property. The law makes a term in a lease of a commercial property, executed, renewed, or extended on or after 1 January 2015, void and unenforceable if it prohibits or unreasonably restricts the installation of an electric vehicle charging station in a parking space.

Clean Vehicle Rebate Project

Plug-in electric cars charging at the public charging station in front of San Francisco City Hall.

As of 10 March 2014, a total of 52,264 clean vehicle rebates have been issued, for a total of US$110,222,866 disbursed, with only US$3.8 million remaining for fiscal year 2013-2014. The distribution of the rebates issued correspond to 27,210 zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs), including both battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and fuel cell vehicles (FCVs); 24,657 plug-in hybrids (PHEVs); 49 commercial zero-emission vehicles (CZEVs); 210 zero-emission motorcycles (ZEMs); and 138 neighborhood electric vehicles (NEVs). The Clean Vehicle Rebate Project notes their figures do not capture all plug-in electric vehicles sold in California because not every PEV owner applies for the rebate. Also, about 2,300 Chevrolet Volts were sold in California before the Volt became eligible for the rebate in February 2012, and therefore, these sales are not accounted in the CVRP database. In terms of market share, plug-in hybrids represented 47.2% of all clean vehicle rebates, while ZEVs, predominantly all-electric cars, represented 52.11% of all rebates issued since January 2011 through early March 2014. Accounting for sales of the 2,300 Volts, the distribution becomes 49.9% for ZEVs and 49.4% for PHEVs.

The following table presents the geographical distribution of the rebates by county and by type of vehicle (ZEV or PHEV) for the top 15 counties, which together represent 93% of all rebates issued by early March 2014. Based on the CVRP database, Southern California is the leading region in plug-in electric vehicle adoption, with over 28,500 rebates issued for PEVs, while the San Francisco Bay Area has benefited with more than 18,300 rebates. Southern California has captured 54.7% of all rebated issued. The top five counties in the state by early March 2014 are Los Angeles (14,420), Santa Clara (7,735), Orange (6,182), San Diego (4,659), and Alameda (3,870). In Southern California plug-in hybrids (15,201) are outselling all-electric cars (13,200), while in the Bay Area electric cars (10,992) are outselling plug-in hybrids (7,249).

California Clean Vehicle Rebate Project (CVRP) beneficiaries by county with over 500 rebates issued as of 10 March 2014
County	Total rebates(1)	ZEVs (BEV/FCV)	PHEVs(2)	Rebate funding	% State
Top counties Southern California
Los Angeles	14,420	6,277	8,015	$29,117,973	27.6%
Orange	6,182	2,537	3,622	$12,109,099	11.8%
San Diego	4,659	3,060	1,563	$10,827,189	8.9%
Riverside	1,308	501	804	$2,512,933	2.5%
Ventura	1,083	488	593	$2,214,494	2.1%
San Bernardino	943	337	604	$1,780,950	1.8%
Top counties SoCal	28,595	13,200	15,201	$58,562,638	54.7%
Top counties San Francisco Bay Area
Santa Clara	7,735	4,630	3,080	$16,957,252	14.8%
Alameda	3,870	2,291	1,552	$8,354,469	7.4%
San Mateo	2,123	1,419	657	$4,865,466	4.1%
Contra Costa	1,951	985	959	$4,027,554	3.7%
San Francisco	1,082	681	371	$2,557,025	2.1%
Marin	845	536	305	$1,907,300	1.6%
Sonoma	781	450	325	$1,695,800	1.5%
Top counties Bay Area	18,387	10,992	7,249	$40,364,866	35.2%
Other top counties
Sacramento	1,062	634	427	$2,272,609	2.0%
Santa Cruz	542	330	204	$1,193,900	1.0%
Total Top 15 counties	48,586	25,156	23,081	$102,394,013	93.0%
Total California(3)	52,264	27,210	24,657	$110,222,866	100%
Notes: (1) Total includes ZEVs (both BEVs and FCVs), PHEVs, CZEVs, ZEMs and NEVs. (2) About 2,300 Chevrolet Volts sold in California before the car became eligible for the rebate in February 2012 are not included. (3) Not all plug-in electric vehicles sold in California are captured in the CVRP database as not every PEV owner applies for the rebate.

As of July 2015, California is analyzing to add income-based caps to its plug-in car rebate system. From data gathered through June 2015, it appears higher-income buyers are getting the majority of California rebates. A survey from the second quarter of 2015 shows that about three quarters of rebates went to households earning more than US$99,000 a year. Those with incomes above US$200,000 a year accounted for 26% of total rebates, while those with income under US$99,000 represented 27%.

Under the proposal, Californian buyers with incomes less than 300% of the Federal poverty level will get up to US$3,000 for a plug-in hybrid, US$4,000 for an all-electric car, and US$6,500 for a hydrogen fuel-cell car and the rebate scales down until Californian buyers with incomes over US$250,000 no longer are eligible for incentives on plug-in hybrids or electric cars, however can get US$5,000 for a hydrogen fuel-cell car. These new rules must still be approved by the state legislature, and are expected to be approved by the end of 2015 or beginning of 2016, This change in policy will primarily affect Tesla Motors, whose lineup starts at US$75,000.

Georgia

Georgia ranked second in the U.S. after California in terms of total plug-in electric vehicles on the road by mid-2014 . During the first half of 2014 Georgia ranked as the top selling all-electric car market in the U.S. at the state level with a 1.6% share of new light-vehicle registrations, ahead of California (1.41%), and up from 0.94% during 2013. As of August 2014, there were about 12,000 electric vehicles registered in the state, of which, about 80% are registered in metro Atlanta’s five core counties. In the 12 months between April 2013 and March 2014, metro Atlanta was the second top selling all-electric car metropolitan market in the U.S., with a market share of 2.15% of total new light-vehicle sales in the state, 5.6 times the national average share of 0.38%. Savannah ranks second in the state after Atlanta, with a market share of 0.13% of total new light-vehicle sales.

Between August 2013 and May 2014, Atlanta was the top U.S. metropolitan market for the Nissan Leaf for eight out of the ten months, and until July 2013, Atlanta was the third largest Leaf market behind San Francisco and Los Angeles. Leaf sales are favored by Georgia's law, which caps sales of electric vehicles sold direct by a manufacturer to 150, setting a restrictive limit to Tesla Model S sales, and the law excluded plug-in hybrids for eligibility to the state's tax credit.

Tax credits

The State of Georgia considers alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs) those that run solely on alternative fuel and do not run on regular gasoline. AFVs includes vehicles that operate using battery electricity, propane, natural gas, and hydrogen fuel cell. As incentives to accelerate all-electric vehicle adoption, in addition to the existing US$7,500 federal tax credit, Georgia offers an income tax credit of 20% of the vehicle cost up to US$5,000 for the purchase or leasing of a zero emission vehicle (ZEV). Plug-in hybrids are not eligible for this incentive because sometimes they are powered by electricity from their on-board combustion engine. There is also a 10% tax credit up to US$2,500 for the purchase and installation of qualified electric vehicle charger. This tax credit applies only to non-retail business enterprises and chargers installed at homes do not qualify.

Tesla Roadster with Georgia's Alternative Fuel Vehicle (AFV) license plate, which allows access to high occupancy vehicle lanes (HOV) regardless of number of passengers.

An income tax credit for the purchase of a new commercial medium-duty or heavy-duty AFVs started on July 1, 2015. Medium-duty hybrid electric vehicles also qualify. Eligible medium-duty AFVs with a gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) between 8,500 to 26,001 lb (3,856 to 11,794 kg) qualify for a credit of up to US$12,000, while heavy-duty AFVs with a GVWR over 26,001 lb (11,794 kg) qualify for a credit of up to US$20,000. The credit is capped at US$250,000 per taxpayer. Qualified AFVs must be purchased before June 30, 2017, remain registered in Georgia for at least five years, and accumulate at least 75% of their annual mileage in Georgia. Up to US$2.5 million in total credits will be available each fiscal year.

Access to HOV lanes

The definition of alternate fuel vehicle for the purposes of an AFV License Plate in Georgia is different from the one for tax credit purposes. The Official Code of Georgia Annotated defines an AFV as a vehicle that has been certified by the EPA in accordance with the Federal Clean Air Act, therefore, both all-electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids are eligible for Georgia's AFV license plate. All vehicles displaying a GA alternative fuel license plate are allowed to use high occupancy vehicle lanes (HOV) regardless of number of passengers. Alternative fuel vehicles displaying the proper alternative fuel license plat may obtain a Peach Pass electronic tag that grants them toll-free access to all Peach Pass controlled high-occupancy toll lanes (HOT) lanes.

Time-of-use electricity rates

Georgia Power, the primary utility in Atlanta, offers a time-of-use electric vehicle plan designed for plug-in charging. As of September 2014, the plan has about 1,500 customers statewide. For a monthly fee of US$10, the utility lowers the overnight rate to 1.3 cents per Kilowatt hour (kWh) while raising the peak rate, from 2-7 p.m. from June through September, to 20.3 cents per kWh. There is also a shoulder rate of 6.2 cents per Kwh in between those times. The average U.S. rate is 11.88 cents per kWh.

Charging infrastructure

As of April 2014, Georgia had 238 charging stations with 548 public outlets available across the state. Of these, about 120 public charging stations are located in metro Atlanta, with only about half of these located inside the city limits of Atlanta. Considering the rapid growth of electric cars in the city, there is a shortage of charging infrastructure relative to supply of electric vehicles.

The city of Atlanta is considering legislation to attend the needs of electric car owners and others who want to provide electric vehicle charging at their business, multifamily dwelling or private home. The measure aims to remove a major barrier to owning an electric vehicle by encouraging office and residential landlords to install electric vehicle chargers and reserved parking. Under the proposal, each electric vehicle charging station would be counted as one parking space, and the minimum parking requirement for developers and builders would be reduced by one space for each charging station provided, allowing up to a 10% reduction in minimum parking requirements. The city also wants to simplify the process required to obtain a permit to install electric vehicle chargers and make the spaces more identifiable.

Hawaii

A public electric car charging station in Kaka'ako, Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii.

Hawaii has a high potential for mass adoption of plug-in electric vehicles due to the limited driving range imposed by the island geographies, and its high fuel costs, with gasoline prices, as of September 2013, ranging between US$4.25 and US$5.00 a gallon. The number of registered plug-in electric vehicles increased from 581 units in 2011, to 967 in 2012, and reached 1,551 units in June 2013. As of August 2014, a total of 2,821 plug-in highway legal plug-in electric cars have been registered in Hawaii.

In terms of EV adoption, Hawaii ranked in 2013 as the state with the third highest all-electric car market share with 1.21% of new car sales, and during the first half of 2014 ranked fourth with a 1.04% market share. Accounting for sales of pure electric cars between April 2013 and March 2014, the Honolulu metropolitan area ranks as the fourth top selling BEV metro market in the United States, with 1.71% of new car sales.

In January 2011 the state implemented a purchase rebate of up to US$5,000 available for both the purchase of a plug-in electric car purchase and a charging station, but limited to US$4,500 for the vehicle. The rebate ended in May 2012 as high consumer demand depleted the fund. More than 450 rebates were issued totaling about US$2 million. Several efforts to add more funds were unsuccessful.

New York

The stock of plug-in electric vehicles in New York climbed from 1,000 units in early 2012, to over 10,000 plug-in vehicles by mid-September 2,014. The state of New York set the goal to deploy up to 3,000 EV charging stations in public and workplace locations across the state by 2018. As of September 2014, there are about 1,000 charging stations.

Plug-in electric vehicles and hybrid electric vehicles with a combined fuel economy rating of at least 45 mpg_-US (5.2 L/100 km; 54 mpg_-imp) and that also meet the California Air Resources Board SULEV emissions standard, are eligible for the Clean Pass Program. Eligible vehicles which display the Clean Pass vehicle sticker are allowed to use the Long Island Expressway HOV lanes, regardless of the number of occupants. Drivers of qualified vehicles may also receive a 10% discount on established E-ZPass accounts with proof of registration. In New York state there are no purchase incentives.

Oregon

As of November 2013, there were about 3,500 plug-in electric vehicles registered in Oregon. In 2013 the state was the fifth top selling all-electric car market in the U.S. at the state level with a 0.89% market share of new light-vehicle registrations, more than twice the national average share of 0.32%. During the first half of 2014 Oregon BEV share fell to 0.67% but continued to rank in the fifth place among the top selling states.

In the 12 months between April 2013 and March 2014, two metropolitan areas in Oregon ranked among the top ten selling all-electric car metropolitan markets in the U.S. Portland ranked eighth with a 1.25% market share of total new light-vehicle sales, ahead of Los Angeles metropolitan area, and Eugene ranked in number 10 with a market share of 0.86%. The national average share during this period was 0.38%.

Incentives

A US$1,500 tax credit for the purchase of a new all-electric vehicle is no longer available. There is a tax credit up to US$750 to cover 25% of the cost of purchasing and installing an electric vehicle charger station, and 35% for business owners. Beginning January 1, 2015, business owners that purchase two or more all-electric vehicles may be eligible for a tax credit of 35% of eligible costs for the incremental cost of purchasing the vehicles. This incentive ends on December 31, 2018.

Electric Avenue

Electric Avenue charging stations at Portland State University.

Electric Avenue is a joint research and development initiative of Portland State University (PSU), Portland General Electric (PGE), and the City of Portland. The Electric Avenue was launched in August 2011 to learn about the interaction and performance of charging stations and a variety of electric vehicles. The initiative also aimed to understand the charging preferences and travel patterns of electric vehicle visitors. The charging infrastructure includes quick chargers and both Level 1 and Level 2 charging stations powered by 100% renewable energy from PGE, and offers charging at standard city parking rates. The site comprises eight on street parking spaces with seven available charging stations located along an entire block. The Electric Avenue is located in the south end of downtown Portland, at the PSU’s campus adjacent to Portland’s Sixth Avenue Transit Mall where light rail trains, electric street cars, buses, cars, bikes, and pedestrians share a well-integrated personal and public transit corridor.

Texas

Texas is the second largest light-duty vehicle market in the U.S. after California, with over 20 million passenger and light truck vehicles registered at the end of 2013. As of May 2014, there were about 5,000 plug-in electric vehicles registered in the state. Accounting for sales of new all-electric vehicles between April 2013 and March 2014, the top three selling metropolitan markets in Texas in terms of market share of total new light-vehicle sales were the Austin metropolitan area with 0.47%, followed by Dallas-Ft. Worth with 0.21% and Houston area with 0.15%. The national average share for the period was 0.38%, with Austin ranking in 15th place, and together with metro Atlanta, the only two cities in the top 15 that are not located on the West Coast.

In November 2013 the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality approved a rebate program to provide financial incentives up to US$2,500 for the purchase or lease of new eligible vehicles powered by compressed natural gas (CNG), liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), or plug-in electric drive with battery capacity larger than 4 kWh. The rebate amount for leasing depends on the lease term, only 4-year lease terms are eligible for the full US$2,500, just like new car purchases. Total funding for the program is US$7.7 million, and the maximum number of vehicles allowed is 2,000 units for each plug-in electric drive and natural gas/propane vehicles for the length of the program. Only purchases made on or after May 13, 2014 are eligible to apply for a rebate, and the program ends June 26, 2015 or until funding ends. As of 22 September 2014, there were US$67 million remaining in the rebate fund.

Nissan Leaf charging in Houston, Texas

Among plug-in cars sold nationwide, the Tesla Model S is not eligible for the rebate because only new PEVs purchased or leased from a dealer or leasing company licensed to operate in Texas may qualify. Tesla Motors is not authorized to sell its vehicles in the state due to its direct-sales business model.

Texas River Cities Plug-In Electric Vehicle Initiative

Despite the low penetration of plug-in electric vehicles in the state, the Texas River Cities Plug-In Electric Vehicle Initiative (TRC) is one of the most comprehensive plans for electric vehicles and their infrastructure aimed to increase the long-term success of PEV adoption. The TRC initiative encompasses two major metropolitan areas in and around Austin and San Antonio. Austin Energy, one of the project partners, had deployed 239 utility-operated publicly accessible charging stations in the TRC region by 2012. The utility company is the recipient of the U.S. Department of Energy funding for this initiative. The TRC region is projected to have 4,259 PEVs in 2015 and 17,336 in 2020.

Pecan Street demonstration project

This demonstration project is run by the Pecan Street Inc., a University of Texas based research consortium of research and industry partners focused on developing and testing advanced technology, business model, and customer behavior surrounding energy management systems. The project is supported by a US$10.4 million smart grid demonstration grant from the U.S. Department of Energy and more than US$14 million in matching funds from the project partners. The demonstration project began in 2010 and is taken place with volunteer residents at the Mueller neighborhood, a planned green community in Austin. The Pecan Street hosts an electric vehicle research program and provides incentives to participants with rebates of US$3,000 and US$7,500 to lease or purchase a PEV that is in addition to the federal tax credits. Through the research program, Pecan Street is studying grid load and monitoring home energy use through management equipment. As a result of the incentive program, Mueller has more plug-in electric vehicles per capita than any other U.S. neighborhood.

General Motors is a sponsor of the Pecan Street demonstration and is supporting the project to learn the charging patterns of plug-in electric car owners, and to study how a residential fleet of electric vehicles might strain the electric grid if all owners try to charge them at the same, which is what the preliminary monitoring found when the plug-in cars return home in the evening. As of June 2013, the community had nearly 60 Chevrolet Volt owners alone thanks to GM's commitment to match the federal government's US$7,500 rebate incentive, which halves the purchase price of the Volt.

Washington

The state set a goal to have 50,000 electric or other clean vehicles on the road by 2020. As of 31 July 2014, there were 9,745 electric vehicles registered in Washington, consisting of 6,798 are all-electric vehicles and 2,947 plug-in hybrids. Washington was the top selling all-electric car market in the U.S. at the state level in 2013 with a 1.40% market share of new light-vehicle registrations, ahead of California (1.28%). Washington PEV share in 2013 was more than four times the national average share of 0.32%. Washington fell to third place with a market share of 1.13%, behind Georgia (1.6%), California (1.41%).

The City of Seattle operates the Nissan Leaf are part of its fleet.

As of July 2014, the Seattle metropolitan area concentrated 74.2% of the state PEV registrations, with 5,420 plug-ins in King County (55.6%), where the city of Seattle is located, 1,011 in Snohomish County (10.4%), and 804 in Pierce County (8.3%). Outside the metro area, Clark County has the largest number of PEV registrations with 516 units (5.3%). In the 12 months between April 2013 and March 2014, Seattle-Tacoma metro ranked as the third top selling all-electric car metropolitan market with a 1.83% market share of total new light-vehicle sales, only behind San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose (3.33%) and Atlanta (2.15%).

Incentives

New passenger cars, light-duty trucks, and medium-duty passenger vehicles that operate exclusively on electricity, hydrogen, natural gas, or propane are exempt from state motor vehicle sales and use taxes. Qualified vehicles must also meet the California motor vehicle emissions standards, and comply with the rules of the Washington Department of Ecology. The sales tax exemption expires July 1, 2015. The sales tax varies from 7% to 9.6% depending on location.

In November 2014 Governor Jay Inslee announced his intention to extend the sale tax break for electric vehicles beyond July 2015 and explore giving them access to carpool lanes. According to the Washington's Department of Revenue the extension would translate in nearly US$13 million less tax revenues in fiscal year 2016, and US$17 million in 2017.

Puget Sound Energy (PSE) provides a $500 rebate to the first 5,000 qualified customers for the purchase and installation of Level 2 electric vehicle charging station (EVSE). Eligible applicants must be PSE residential electric schedule 7 customers, must be the registered owner of an electric vehicle, and must install the charging station within a specified timeframe. PSE expects the rebate program to remain available until November 1, 2016, depending on available funds.

Sales by model

As of December 2015, there are 27 highway-capable plug-in cars available in the American market for retail sales from 14 car manufacturers: BMW, Daimler AG, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Kia Motors, Mitsubishi Motors, Nissan, Tesla Motors, Toyota, Volkswagen, and Volvo. As of June 2015, only the Chevrolet Volt, Nissan Leaf, Tesla Model S, BMW i3, Mitsubishi i, Porsche Panamera S E-Hybrid, Cadillac ELR, and Ford’s C-Max and Fusion Energi plug-in hybrids were available nationwide. Several models, such as the Toyota RAV4, Fiat 500e, Honda Fit EV, and Chevrolet Spark EV, are compliance cars sold in limited markets, mainly California, available in order to raise an automaker’s fleet average fuel economy to satisfy regulator requirements.

The following table presents key features and cumulative sales of highway-capable plug-in electric cars launched in the American market since 2008 through September 2015.

Key features and sales of series-production plug-in electric cars available for retail sales or leasing in the United States (as of September 2015 )
Model	Type of PEV	All-electric range	Market launch	Production/Sales
Nissan Leaf	Electric car	73 mi (117 km)	December 2010	85,952 Leafs sold through September 2015. The Leaf is the all-time top selling plug-in electric car in the U.S. It passed the Chevrolet Volt in March 2015.
Chevrolet Volt first generation Chevrolet Volt second generation	Plug-in hybrid	1st generation 35 mi (56 km) 2nd generation 53 mi (85 km)	December 2010	82,621 units sold through September 2015. The Volt is the top selling plug-in hybrid in the United States. Production of the first generation 2015 model year Volt ended in mid-May 2015. Deliveries of the second generation Volt began in October 2015.
140px Smart ED	Electric car	63 mi (101 km)	January 2011	4,999 units registered through September 2015. (includes 2nd and 3rd gen models). Deliveries of the third generation model began in May 2013.
Mitsubishi i	Electric car	62 miles (100 km)	December 2011	1,986 units sold through September 2015.
Ford Focus Electric	Electric car	76 mi (122 km)	December 2011	5,662 units sold through September 2015. Deliveries to retail customers began in May 2012. Availability is limited to New York, New Jersey and California.
Toyota Prius PHV	Plug-in hybrid	11 mi (18 km)	February 2012	42,136 units sold through September 2015. Available only in 15 states. Production of the first generation Prius Plug-in is scheduled to end in June 2015. Production of the next generation plug-in is expected to begin in about October 2016.
Tesla Model S	Electric car	265 mi (426 km) (85 kW·h battery) 208 mi (335 km) (60 kW·h battery)	June 2012	About 55,520 units sold through September 2015. The Model S is the top selling plug-in electric car in the U.S. during the first nine months of 2015, with about 17,700 units sold.
Ford C-Max Energi	Plug-in hybrid	20 mi (32 km)	October 2012	23,639 units sold through September 2015.
Honda Accord PHEV	Plug-in hybrid	13 mi (21 km)	January 2013	1,037 units have been sold through September 2015. In June 2015 Honda announced that the Accord Plug-in Hybrid will be discontinued after the 2015 model year. A new dedicated plug-in hybrid and battery electric models are scheduled after the introduction of Honda's next generation fuel cell vehicle in 2016.
Ford Fusion Energi	Plug-in hybrid	20 mi (32 km)	February 2013	24,538 units sold through September 2015.
Chevrolet Spark EV	Electric car	82 mi (132 km)	June 2013	3,818 units sold through September 2015. Initial availability limited to California and Oregon.
Fiat 500e	Electric car	87 mi (140 km)	July 2013	About 12,556 units sold through September 2015.
Porsche Panamera S E-Hybrid	Plug-in hybrid	16 mi (26 km)	October 2013	1,295 units sold through September 2015.
Cadillac ELR	Plug-in hybrid	35 mi (56 km)	December 2013	2,056 units sold though September 2015.
BMW i3	Electric/REx	81 mi (130 km)	May 2014	13,985 units sold through September 2015.
McLaren P1	Plug-in hybrid	19 mi (31 km)	May 2014	About 59 units sold through December 2014.
Mercedes-Benz B-Class Electric Drive	Electric	87 mi (140 km)	July 2014	2,461 units were sold through September 2015.
BMW i8	Plug-in hybrid	15 mi (24 km)	August 2014	1,897 units delivered through September 2015.
Kia Soul EV	Electric car	93 mi (150 km)	October 2014	1,086 units delivered through September 2015.
Volkswagen e-Golf	Electric car	83 mi (134 km)	October 2014	2,912 units delivered through September 2015.
Porsche Cayenne S E-Hybrid	Plug-in hybrid	14 mi (23 km)	November 2014	891 units were sold through September 2015.
Mercedes-Benz S 500 e	Plug-in hybrid	17 mi (27 km)	July 2015	37 units sold through September 2015.
Volvo XC90 T8	Plug-in hybrid	17 mi (27 km)	August 2015	4 units sold through September 2015.
Tesla Model X	Electric SUV	257 mi (414 km)	September 2015	The first six units were delivered in September 2015.
Bolloré Bluecar	Electric car	160 mi (260 km)	September 2015	50 units deployed for the BlueIndy carsharing service in Indianapolis that began operations in September 2015.
BMW X5 xDrive40e	Plug-in hybrid	14 mi (23 km)	October 2015	118 units delivered during its first month in the market.
Hyundai Sonata PHEV	Plug-in hybrid	27 mi (43 km)	November 2015	15 units delivered during its first month in the market.
Out-of-production plug-in electric cars that were available for retail sales or leasing in the United States since 2008
Tesla Roadster	Electric car	245 mi (394 km)	March 2008	About 1,800 units through December 2011. Production ended in January 2012.
Mini E	Electric car	100 mi (160 km)	June 2009	500 units leased for field testing that ended in December 2011.
Th!nk City	Electric car	100 mi (160 km)	Late 2010	About 100 units sold mostly in Indiana through March 2011 After Think Global filed for bankruptcy in June 2011, the remaining 150 cars in stock in the U.S. were put on sale at a discounted price.
140px Wheego Whip LiFe	Electric car	100 mi (160 km)	April 2011	34 units sold by March 2012.
Fisker Karma	Plug-in hybrid	32 mi (51 km)	November 2011	1,635 units were sold through December 2013. Production was suspended in November 2012. Fisker Automotive filed for bankruptcy in November 2013.
BMW ActiveE	Electric car	94 mi (151 km)	January 2012	673 units were leased in the U.S. through December 2012. Limited production available only for leasing as part of a demonstration program.
Coda	Electric car	88 mi (142 km)	March 2012	117 units were delivered in California through April 2013. By September 2013, a total of 50 cars left in stock and 100 gliders were available for sale at a discounted price in the U.S. and abroad.
RAV4 EV second generation	Electric SUV	103 mi (166 km)	September 2012	2,489 units were sold through April 2015. Available only in California. Production was limited to 2,600 units. The battery supply deal between Toyota and Tesla concluded by the end of 2014. Production run ended in September 2014.
Honda Fit EV	Electric car	82 mi (132 km)	July 2012	1,070 units delivered through April 2015. Production was limited to 1,100 units over three years. Initial availability was limited to California and Oregon. In July 2014 Honda announced the end of production of the Fit EV for the 2015 model, together with the Honda Insight hybrid and the Honda FCX Clarity hydrogen fuel-cell car.
Porsche 918 Spyder	Plug-in hybrid	12 mi (19 km)	June 2014	297 units delivered through September 2015. The limited production run was sold out in December 2014. The production run ended in June 2015. The country with the most orders was the U.S. with 297 units out of 918 produced.

Car dealers reluctance to sell

With the exception of Tesla Motors, almost all new cars in the United States are sold through dealerships, so they play a crucial role in the sales of electric vehicles, and negative attitudes can hinder early adoption of plug-in electric vehicles. Dealers decide which cars they want to stock, and a salesperson can have a big impact on how someone feels about a prospective purchase. Sales people have ample knowledge of internal combustion cars while they do not have time to learn about a technology that represents a fraction of overall sales. As with any new technology, and in the particular case of advanced technology vehicles, retailers are central to ensuring that buyers, especially those switching to a new technology, have the information and support they need to gain the full benefits of adopting this new technology.

Car dealerships play a crucial role in the sales of plug-in electric vehicles. Shown a Chevrolet dealership exhibiting first generation Volts.

There are several reasons for the reluctance of some dealers to sell plug-in electric vehicles. PEVs do not offer car dealers the same profits as gasoline-powered car. Plug-in electric vehicles take more time to sell because of the explaining required, which hurts overall sales and sales people commissions. Electric vehicles also may require less maintenance, resulting in loss of service revenue, and thus undermining the biggest source of dealer profits, their service departments. According to the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADS), dealers on average make three times as much profit from service as they do from new car sales. However, a NADS spokesman said there was not sufficient data to prove that electric cars would require less maintenance. According to the New York Times, BMW and Nissan are among the companies whose dealers tend to be more enthusiastic and informed, but only about 10% of dealers are knowlegable on the new technology.

A study conducted at the Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS), at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis) published in 2014 found that many car dealers are less than enthusiastic about plug-in vehicles. ITS conducted 43 interviews with six automakers and 20 new car dealers selling plug-in vehicles in California’s major metro markets. The study also analyzed national and state-level J.D. Power 2013 Sales Satisfaction Index (SSI) study data on customer satisfaction with new car dealerships and Tesla retail stores. The researchers found that buyers of plug-in electric vehicles were significantly less satisfied and rated the dealer purchase experience much lower than buyers of non-premium conventional cars, while Tesla Motors earned industry-high scores. According to the findings, plug-in buyers expect more from dealers than conventional buyers, including product knowledge and support that extends beyond traditional offerings.

In 2014 Consumer Reports published results from a survey conducted with 19 secret shoppers that went to 85 dealerships in four states, making anonymous visits between December 2013 and March 2014. The secret shoppers asked a number of specific questions about cars to test the salespeople’s knowledge about electric cars. The consumer magazine decided to conduct the survey after several consumers who wanted to buy a plug-in car reported to the organization that some dealerships were steering them toward gasoline-powered models. The survey found that not all sales people seemed enthusiastic about making PEV sales; a few outright discouraged it, and even one dealer was reluctant to even show a plug-in model despite having one in stock. And many sales people seemed not to have a good understanding of electric-car tax breaks and other incentives or of charging needs and costs. Consumer Reports also found that when it came to answering basic questions, sales people at Chevrolet, Ford, and Nissan dealerships tended to be better informed than those at Honda and Toyota. The survey found that most of the Toyota dealerships visited recommended against buying a Prius Plug-in and suggested buying a standard Prius hybrid instead. Overall, the secret shoppers reported that only 13 dealers “discouraged sale of EV,” with seven of them being in New York. However, at 35 of the 85 dealerships visited, the secret shoppers said sales people recommended buying a gasoline-powered car instead.

The ITS-Davis study also found that a small but influential minority of dealers have introduced new approaches to better meet the needs of plug-in customers. Examples include marketing carpool lane stickers, enrolling buyers in charging networks, and preparing incentive paperwork for customers. Some dealers assign seasoned sales people as plug-in experts, many of whom drive plug-ins themselves to learn and be familiar with the technology and relate the car’s benefits to potential buyers. The study concluded also that carmakers could do much more to support dealers selling PEVs.

Future trends

According to a 2011 study by Pike Research, annual sales of plug-in electric vehicles in the U.S. were predicted to reach 360,000 vehicles by 2017. The study projected that the highest sales between 2011 and 2017 would take place in California, New York and Florida. In 2012, and as sales have fallen short of projections, Pike Research projected that annual sales of plug-in electric vehicles in the U.S. will reach 400,073 units in 2020, with California as the state with the highest PEV sales over the remainder of this decade, with nearly 25% of all PEVs sold in the United States between 2012 and 2020. In terms of market share, California will be followed by New York, Florida, Texas, and Washington, but Hawaii is expected by 2020 to have the highest penetration rate of PEVs as a percentage of all light duty vehicle sales. California is predicted to have four of the top ten metropolitan areas for PEV sales: Los Angeles–Long Beach, San Francisco Bay Area, Silicon Valley, and Greater Sacramento. Pike Research forecasts that cumulative sales of PEVs in the largest 102 American cities will reach more than 1.8 million from 2012 through 2020, with a share of more than 25% of all annual sales concentrated in the top five metropolitan areas for PEV sales: New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and Portland.

In a separate analysis published in September 2013, Navigant Research forecasts that PEVs will represent a 2.4% market share of total new vehicle sales in the United States in 2022. Navigant also predicted that Hawaii will have the highest concentration of plug-in electric vehicle sales in the U.S., with 10.1% of total Hawaiian new light-duty vehicle sales in 2022; followed by Northern California with 9.7%, California as a whole will be 6.0%, and Oregon with 5.8%. Hawaii has a high potential for mass adoption of plug-in electric vehicles due to the limited driving range imposed by the islands size and its high fuel costs. In an updated report published in April 2014 Navigant forecasts that the United States will remain the largest national market for light-duty plug-in electric vehicles during the next 10 years, with the PEV segment growing at a compound annual growth rate of 16.3% between 2014 and 2023, predicting that annual PEV sales in the U.S. will exceed 514,000 in 2023.

According to forecasts made by Pike Research in January 2013, the United States will continue to be the largest market for PEVs in 2020, but the European market is anticipated to have a higher market penetration (4.0% market share) due to its higher gasoline prices and supportive government policies, while Japan is expected to become the largest market for hybrid electric vehicles. A similar trend is predicted by Navigant Research in a geographical forecast published in April 2014. Navigant predicts that by 2023 the fleet of light duty plug-in electric vehicles in use in Oslo is expected to represent 10.7% of the city's total registered light-duty fleet, 7.7% in Amsterdam, and 2.5% in Paris. Navigant also predicts that by 2020 annual PEV sales in the Greater Tokyo Area will surpass Los Angeles, currently the city with the largest PEV market. The PEV fleet in Tokyo is expected to reach a market penetration of 2.3% of the city's light-duty stock in 2023, and become the world's largest PEV city market with a PEV stock of around 260,000 in 2023, while Los Angeles is expected to have a stock of over 250,000 PEVs.

Neighborhood electric vehicles

The chart and table are based on Department of Energy tables. (Table V1 and the Historical Data.) Figures for electric vehicles do not include privately owned vehicles, but do include Low-Speed Vehicles (LSVs), defined as "four-wheeled motor vehicles whose top speed is ...20 to 25 mph (32 to 40 km/h) ... to be used in residential areas, planned communities, industrial sites, and other areas with low density traffic, and low-speed zones." LSVs, more commonly known as neighborhood electric vehicles (NEVs), were defined in 1998 by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 500, which required safety features such as windshields and seat belts, but not doors or side walls.

The GEM is the best selling low-speed neighborhood electric vehicle in the U.S.

Electric Cars in the United States
Year	Number
1992	1,607
1993	1,690
1994	2,224
1995	2,860
1996	3,280
1997	4,453
1998	5,243
1999	6,964
2000	11,830
2001	17,847
2002	33,047
2003	47,485
2004	49,536
2005	51,398
2006	53,526
2007	55,730
2008	56,901
2009	57,185
Average annual growth	26.0%

Since 1998 Global Electric Motorcars (GEM), the market leader in North America, has sold more than 50,000 GEM battery-electric vehicles worldwide as of October 2015.

Modern production timeline

See also: List of modern production plug-in electric vehicles and list of production battery electric vehicles

The General Motors EV1 was one of the first PEVs introduced in 1996 as a result of CARB's zero-emissions vehicle mandate.

Toyota RAV4 EV (first generation)

File:Modec FedEx truck, LA.jpg

Navistar eStar all-electric van

Azure Transit Connect Electric

Smith Newton delivery truck

Scion iQ EV

Mitsubishi Outlander P-HEV

Chevrolet Bolt

This is a list of all highway-capable plug-in electric vehicles available for retail customers in the U.S. for sale or leasing since the early 1990s.

1990-2003

• Chrysler TEVan (1993-1995)
• General Motors EV1 (1996-2003)
• Toyota RAV4 EV (1997-2003)
• Honda EV Plus (1997-1999)
• Nissan Altra (1998-2001)
• Dodge Caravan EPIC (1999 to 2001)
• Ford TH!NK City (1999-2003)

2008-2015

2008

• Tesla Roadster (production ended in 2011)

2009

• Mini E (demonstration program ended in 2011)

2010

• Chevrolet Volt (production ended in 2015)
• Nissan Leaf
• Navistar eStar utility van

2011

• Th!nk City (no longer in production)
• Smart ED 2nd gen (available for leasing only)
• Wheego Whip LiFe (no longer in production)
• Fisker Karma (no longer in production)
• Azure Transit Connect Electric delivery van (no longer in production)
• Mitsubishi i (Mitsubishi i MiEV in the rest of the world)
• Smith Newton delivery truck

2012

• BMW ActiveE (demonstration program ended in 2014)
• Coda (no longer in production)
• Ford Focus Electric (limited production)
• Toyota Prius PHV (production ended in 2015)
• Boulder DV-500 delivery truck
• Amp Electric Vehicles (SUV and light truck conversions)
• Tesla Model S
• Honda Fit EV (limited production)
• Toyota RAV4 EV (2nd gen) (limited production)
• Ford C-Max Energi

2013

• Honda Accord Plug-in Hybrid
• Ford Fusion Energi
• Scion iQ EV (limited production available only for carsharing fleets, not for retail customers)
• Smart electric drive 3rd gen (available with battery leasing option)
• Chevrolet Spark EV (limited production)
• Fiat 500e (limited production)
• Porsche Panamera S E-Hybrid
• Cadillac ELR (limited production)

2014

• BMW i3
• Porsche 918 Spyder (limited edition)
• Mercedes-Benz B-Class Electric Drive
• BMW i8
• Volkswagen e-Golf
• Kia Soul EV
• Porsche Cayenne S E-Hybrid

2015

• Mercedes-Benz S 500 Plug-in Hybrid
• Volvo XC 90 PHEV
• Tesla Model X
• Bolloré Bluecar (available only for the BlueIndy carsharing fleet)
• Chevrolet Volt (second generation)
• BMW X5 xDrive40e
• Hyundai Sonata PHEV

Future cars

The following is a list of plug-in hybrids with market launch scheduled between 2016 and 2018.

2016

• Audi A3 Sportback e-tron
• Mitsubishi Outlander P-HEV
• BMW 330e Plug-In Hybrid
• Chrysler Town & Country plug-in hybrid
• Audi R8 e-tron (limited production)
• BMW 740e xDrive
• Cadillac CT6 Plug-in Hybrid
• Toyota Prius PHEV (second generation)
• Mercedes-Benz C 350e Plug-in Hybrid
• Mercedes-Benz GLE 550e
• Elux Karma (second generation Fisker Karma)

2017

• Chevrolet Bolt
• Tesla Model 3
• Audi Q7 e-tron Quattro
• Audi Q8 e-tron Quattro
• Bentley Plug-In Hybrid

2018

• BMW 5 Series PHEV
• Honda EV/PHEV

U.S. electric vehicle organizations

• CalCars (The California Cars Initiative)
• Drive Oregon
• Electric Auto Association (EAA) (North America)
• Electric Auto Association of Northern Nevada
• Electric Auto Association Silicon Valley
• Electric Car Society
• Humboldt Electric Vehicle Association
• NEDRA National Electric Drive Racing Association
• Oregon Electric Vehicle Association
• Plug In America
• PHEV Research Center
• Project EVIE
• RechargeIT (Google.org)
• San Francisco BayLEAFs
• Seattle Electric Vehicle Association
• World Electric Vehicle Association

See also

• CalCars
• Electric car use by country
• Government incentives for plug-in electric vehicles
• Hybrid electric vehicles in the United States
• List of modern production plug-in electric vehicles
• New energy vehicles in China
• Plug In America
• Plug-in electric vehicle
• Plug-in electric vehicles in Japan
• Plug-in electric vehicles in the Netherlands
• Plug-in electric vehicles in Norway
• Plug-in electric vehicles in the United Kingdom
• Plug-in hybrids in California
• Plug-in hybrids in New York

External links

• 2013 VehicleTechnologies Market Report, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
• 2013 ZEV Action Plan: A roadmap toward 1.5 million zero-emission vehicles on California roadways by 2025, Office of the Governor of California, February 2013.
• AAA Electric Vehicle webpage (American Automobile Association)
• A Guide to the Lessons Learned from the Clean Cities Community Electric Vehicle Readiness Projects, Clean Cities, U.S. Department of Energy, January 2013.
• California: Beyond cars? Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Tom Turrentine, August 2014.
• Clean Car Calculator (Institute for Energy Efficiency)
• Clean Cities - 2014 Vehicle Buyer's Guide, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), U.S. Department of Energy, December 2013.
• Cleaner Cars from Cradle to Grave, Union of Concerned Scientists, November 2015.
• Driving Cleaner - More Electric Vehicles Mean Less Pollution, Environment North Carolina Research & Policy Center, June 2014.
• Early Plug-in Electric Vehicle Sales: Trends, Forecasts, and Determinants, Luskin Center for Innovation, UCLA, July 2012
• Effects of Federal Tax Credits for the Purchase of Electric Vehicles Congressional Budget Office, September 2012
• Effects of Regional Temperature on Electric Vehicle Efficiency, Range, and Emissions in the United States, Tugce Yuksel and Jeremy Michalek, Carnegie Mellon University. 2015
• eGallon Calculator: Compare the costs of driving with electricity, U.S. Department of Energy
• Electric drive vehicle sales figures (U.S. Market) - EV sales, Electric Drive Transportation Association
• Electric Vehicles and Public Charging Infrastructure: Impediments and Opportunities for Success in the United States, Texas A&M Transportation Institute, July 2013
• Electric Vehicle Guide, Sierra Club
• Electric Vehicle Paradise: How Hawai'i Can Lead the World in Deployment, Center for Law, Energy and the Environment at the University of California, Berkeley, September 2013
• Electric Vehicle Sales Analysis, Luskin Center for Innovation, UCLA, August 2013
• Electric Vehicle Timeline: Electric Cars, Plug-In Hybrids, and Fuel Cell Vehicles (1900-2014), Union of Concerned Scientists
• EPA Green Vehicle Guide
• EV Driver Survey Dashboard, California's Clean Vehicle Rebate Project (CVRP)
• EV Everywhere Grand Challenge Blueprint, U.S. Department of Energy, January 2013.
• Evaluating the Impact of High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) Lane Access on Plug-In Vehicles (PEVs) Purchasing and Usage in California, University of California, Davis, Working Paper UCD-ITS-WP-14-01, 2014
• Fact Sheet: Plug-in Electric Vehicles (2014), Environmental and Energy Study Institute, June 2014.
• Federal Tax Credits For Plug-In Hybrids, Electric Cars: What You Need To Know, The Washington Post, August 2014.
• Global EV Outlook - Understanding the Electric Vehicle Landscape to 2020, International Energy Agency (IEA), April 2013
• How Clean is Your Electric Vehicle?, Union of Concerned Scientists on-line tool to calculate carbon emissions for a given plug-in car model according to the corresponding U.S. ZIP code.
• Influence of driving patterns on life cycle cost and emissions of hybrid and plug-in electric vehicle powertrains, Carnegie Mellon Vehicle Electrification Group
• Light-Duty Automotive Technology, Carbon Dioxide Emissions, and Fuel Economy Trends: 1975 Through 2014 (See Chapter 7), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, October 2014.
• Light Duty Electric Drive Vehicles Monthly Sales Updates, Argonne National Laboratory
• List of vehicles eligible for California's single occupant carpool lane stickers
• List of U.S. Electric Vehicle and EVSE Incentives by State, September 2014
• Model Year 2014 Fuel Economy Guide, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of Energy, August 2014 (see pp. 33–36 for plug-in electric models available).
• New Car Dealers and Retail Innovation in California’s Plug-In Electric Vehicle Market. Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California, Davis, Working Paper UCD-ITS-WP-14-04, 2014.
• Overcoming Barriers to Electric-Vehicle Deployment: Interim Report (2013), Transportation Research Board, U.S National Research Council
• Plug-In Electric Vehicles: A Case Study of Seven Markets (Norway, Netherlands, California, United States, France, Japan, and Germany), UC Davis, October 2014.
• Plug-In Electric Vehicle Handbook for Workplace Charging Hosts, Clean Cities, U.S. Department of Energy, August 2013
• Plug-in Electric Vehicles: the First Three Years (of the post-modern electric-vehicle era) Dec 2010 — Nov 2013, Luskin Center for Innovation, UCLA, December 2013
• Qualified Plug-In Electric Drive Motor Vehicles (IRC 30D), Internal Revenue Service (IRS), June 2014
• Roadmap to Climate-Friendly Cars: 2013, Climate Central, August 2013.
• State of the Plug-in Electric Vehicle Market, Electrification Coalition, July 2013.
• Supporting the Plug-In Electric Vehicle Market - Best Practices from State Programs, Georgetown Climate Center, December 2014.
• The Great Debate -- All-Electric Cars vs. Plug-In Hybrids, April 2014.
• Top Ten EPA-Rated Fuel Sippers (2014) - including BEVs and PHEVs
• U.S. PEV Sales by Model, Alternative Fuels and Advanced Vehicle Data Center, U.S. Department of Energy