Gas station owners need not fret quite yet, but electric vehicle sales are steadily increasing.
According to research from InsideEVs.com, approximately 119,710 plug-in vehicles were sold in the United States in 2014, a 23% jump from 2013 and a 128% jump from 2012.
Leading the pack was the Nissan Leaf, which sold a total of 30,200 units in 2014, up from 23,094 last year. Other popular plug-in models included the Chevrolet Volt from General Motors (GM), the Toyota (TM) Prius PHV and, of course, Elon Musk’s Tesla (TSLA) S.
There’s also been a notable shakeup at the top of the rankings: the Nissan Leaf, which ranked third in plug-in vehicle sales in 2012 is now the top selling model in this sector. Chevrolet Volt has slipped to second place while the Toyota Prius PHV is now fourth, also ranking behind Tesla (the Prius ranked second in 2012). Coins2Day sister publication Money recently dug into some of the challenges Toyota’s Prius is facing.
Of course, despite the increase, plug-in electric vehicles still represent an incredibly small portion of the US auto market. With total vehicle sales for 2014 coming it at around 16.5 million, plug-in vehicles made up less than 1% of total sales.
Worldwide, 283,202 electric cars were sold in 2014.
Watch more about electric cars from Coins2Day’s video team: