Sales in the Alternative Power segment continued falling in Q3 2015 at 17% compared to the same period last year, even faster than the 12% fall in the first half of the year. It is clear that low gas prices are bad news for this segment…
Highlights:
- Toyota’s Prius line-up continues to dominate this segment, accounting for almost 2/3rds of all sales
- Tesla Model S came within 1,000 units of outselling the Ford C-Max in Q3 2015, and may yet begin outselling the aging hybrid model in 2016
- In fact, the only models to record rising sales in the last quarter were premium models: Tesla Model S (up 4%), BMW i3 (up 43%), Mercedes-Benz electric B-class (up 228%) and BMW i8 (up 809%)
- Nissan Leaf’s sales collapse in the last quarter, ending up almost 60% down on Q3 2014
- Chevy Volt’s sales were also down almost 40% compared to Q4 2014, although in this case this could be put down to consumers waiting for the new model to become available
