During the first six months of 2013, Americans bought more than twice as many electric cars as they did for the same period last year. Around 40,000 new electric vehicles were purchased in the first half of the year. This is still not a big number compared to overall vehicle sales, but at this stage it’s that big growth percentage that’s more than noteworthy.
The Department of Energy has said that more people appear to be taking advantage of the low and stable price of electricity as a transportation fuel, which is good news from both environment and economy.
The growth in plug-in electric vehicle sales was also big last year, tripling from about 17,000 in 2011 to 52,000 in 2012. Â It has been pointed out that this growth in electric vehicles sales far outstrips the growth of hybrid vehicles in the early years of that market. Two and a half years after the first hybrid was introduced to the market, only 3,000 were being sold per month. At the same period, over 9,000 electric cars per month were being sold.
With that in mind, it’s worth noting that last year Toyota’s Prius became the world’s third-best selling car line. This certainly bodes very well for the future of electric cars.
Via GristÂ
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