Power cord charging the electric car on the parking lot.
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The compact Tesla Model 3 is not only the most popular electric vehicle in the industry, over the first six months of 2019 the automaker delivered more of them to customers than all the other EVs sold in the U.S. put together. According to data compiled by the website InsideEVs.com, 67,650 Model 3s were sold from January through June. That’s considerably higher than the 24,367 units that were delivered during the same period in 2018. An impressive 21,225 Model 3s were sold in June alone.
InsideEVs.com says 106,864 full-electric vehicles were sold or leased in the U.S. so far this year, which is a considerable increase over the same period during 2018 when 63,752 battery-driven cars were delivered to customers. Much of this jump has to do with the success of the Model 3, which on its own accounts for 63 percent of all 2019 full-EV sales. And that’s despite the federal tax credit for Tesla buyers being slashed in half on January 1 because the company had reached the 200,000-unit sales threshold in 2018. The Model 3’s June surge could be attributed at least partially in anticipation of Tesla’s tax credits dropping a second time as part of its phase-out on July 1 to $1,850
Sales of Tesla’s Model S and Model X, on the other hand were down a bit over the first six months of the year, compared to the same period in 2018. With sport-utility vehicle sales surging, the Tesla Model X now outsells its showroom sibling.
Elsewhere in the segment, sales of the Chevrolet Bolt EV ticked up a bit during the first six months of 2018 despite its federal tax credit being cut from $7,500 to $3,750 on April 1. It’s worst sales month was, in fact, April, though sales have since rebounded as Chevy responded with generous cash rebates and cut-rate financing offers. The automaker is currently offering $5,500 cash back or $1,000 cash and zero percent financing for 72 months on the Bolt through the end of July.
Among recently introduced electrified rides hitting the market for 2019, the Audi eTron and Jaguar i-Pace luxury crossover EVs made the charts, with the former topping the latter despite being on the market for just the last three months.
Here’s the top 10 selling electric vehicles over the first six months of the year (with totals from 2018 in parentheses), according to estimated and announced sales figures charted by InsideEVs.com.
- Tesla Model 3: 67,650 (24,367)
- Tesla Model X: 9,000 (9,525)
- Chevrolet Bolt EV: 8,281 (7,858)
- Tesla Model S: 7,225 (10,820)
- Nissan Leaf: 6,008 (6,659)
- BMW i3: 2,207 (3,504)
- Volkswagen e-Golf: 1,893 (776)
- Audi e-Tron: 1,835 (NA)
- Jaguar i-Pace: 1,309 (NA)
- Smart EQ ForTwo: 496 (593)
