With a presidential election and a deadly hurricane hogging the headlines, it’s perhaps understandable that the major national news media have ignored the most important story: all three of the mass-market plug-in vehicles broke sales records in October, while also topping the Consumer Reports customer reliability survey.

Once again the Chevrolet Volt leads the plug-in pack. The American-made PHEV sold 2,961 units in October, the third straight month of new all-time highs. Year-to-date sales are 19,309.

Toyota sold 1,889 Prius Plug-Ins in October, a new monthly record and a modest improvement over September’s 1,652 units.

The Nissan LEAF moved 1,579 units in October, vindicating CEO Carlos Ghosn’s prediction of a “dramatic” improvement for the month. More attractive lease terms may have been responsible for the upswing. Nissan is now producing batteries in Smyrna, Tennessee, and eMotors in Dechard, Tennessee. Nissan spokesperson Katherine Zachery told InsideEVs that US-made 2013 LEAFs will start rolling off the line in December.

Tesla does not give out monthly figures, but CEO Elon Musk tweeted that Tesla had completed the 1000th Model S body, and produced more cars this month than in the entire rest of the year. That’s encouraging news for those of us anxiously waiting to see if the Silicon Valley startup can ramp up production quickly enough to clear its backlog of orders.

Fisker also does not report monthly sales, but the company said in October that it has sold more than 2,000 Karmas worldwide.

None of the other handful of production EVs cracked the triple digits (unsurprisingly, as none have done any advertising that we’re aware of). However, InsideEVs reported that some Ford dealerships are offering to lease the Focus Electric at $199/month, matching Nissan’s terms for the LEAF, so perhaps Ford is now at least thinking about marketing the new EV that it was so proud to develop.

Toyota’s new RAV4 EV is currently only available at select California dealers, but nonetheless managed to sell 61 units in September, and 47 in October.

Source: InsideEVs
Images: Nissan, GM