July 2015 Plug-In Electric Vehicle Sales Report Card

[cove3]

313 sold in the US. Anemic for such a great car. i3 sold 900, although in all states
http://insideevs.com/july-2015-plug-electric-vehicle-sales-report-card/

Ron

 

[sweetwagon]

Thanks for sharing. I'm surprised the Mercedes b-class electric only did 196. Good looking EV.

 

[RonDawg]

What surprises me is the slow sales of the Kia Soul EV. If you think the eGolf was a rare beast, VW moved nearly 4 times as many of these as Kia did the Soul EV. Even the Ford Focus Electric (when was the last time you saw one of these?) outsold the Soul EV.

The article states that Soul EVs tend to stay on dealer lots for only a couple of weeks so for some reason Kia is constraining supply on these.

 

[sweetwagon]

There hasn't been any Soul EVs available for a while now in SF bay area.

 

[cove3]

'm surprised the Mercedes B-Class electric only did 196. Good looking EV.>>

I was going to take a test drive, but at 4000 lbs, no CCS available, and way more expensive than the egolf SEL, I decided against it. Also, it seems more of a compliance car than VW which seems more committed to electric, even though initially only in CARB states. Also, the golf has been refined for 40 years now, and they got it about perfect with this 7th generation

Ron

 

[RonDawg]

way more expensive than the egolf SEL

Not only is the base price much higher than any other EVs save for Tesla and BMW, but for that nearly $43k you don't get a lot of features that come standard with much less expensive cars. Want heated front seats? That's another $580 by itself, or $1825 as part of the "Interior Package." Satellite radio capability? That's another $460, or $2480 as part of the Multimedia Package or $2690 as part of Premium Package. Want a rear view camera? Gotta get the Multimedia Package. Auto-dimming rear view mirror? Need the Premium Package.

So just to equip this car to at least meet the feature specs of a mid-level Leaf SV (much less an eGolf SEL) you're looking at nearly 6 grand in options alone. A base model Leaf S comes with all these features except auto-dimming rear mirror for a base price of $29k.

 

[miimura]

I would have considered the B-Class but I thought it was so much more expensive than the e-Golf. I happened to be at Walnut Creek M-B with someone who was buying a used car from them and the salesperson told me that they have some available for $199 lease. I have no idea what the actual deal is and how much you would have to put down to get the payment that low, but that's what he said. With these "compliance" cars you never know how much the manufacturers are willing to do to sweeten the deals to get the sales numbers they need.

 

[Bink]

The eGolf is the electric car we should have had ten years ago. Honestly I wish I bought the i3 instead. Every time I have to use the infotainment system I regret being stuck with this car. Luckily I'm only in a three year lease, I just wish I spent more time checking the car out before I signed the bottom line for it. The infotainment system, and the air conditioning are total deal breakers for me. Neither are up to the standards I would have expected from VW.

 

[cove3]

From the posts on the i3 forum, you'd have a lot more problems with the i3, including ac. My ac is working fine. Infotainment is car net and hopefully they're starting to get their act together. I don't know anything about i3 infotainment to be able to compare

 

[vetaldj]

I also was in place to choose between i3, MB B-Class and eGolf.

In respective order.
But after checking what it will be final price for each I choose eGolf with same features, range for less.
For final price of BMW and MB (after all useful feature added) I would add little bit more and buy Tesla.

BMW has higher number of i3 I think because of extended range version. Pretty much all i3 I saw here while driving up and down i-405 has green stickers (those with small gas engine).