October sales figures have revealed an upset in the EV race – The Chevy Volt had its best month ever, selling 1,108 units

October sales figures have revealed an upset in the EV race – The Chevy Volt had its best month ever, selling 1,108 units and nosing ahead of Nissan’s Leaf, which sold 849, for the first time. The Volt’s October rally represents a 50% increase over September, while Nissan’s tally shows a slight decrease.

Both companies have a hard race ahead to reach their sales goals for the year. The score so far: about 5,000 for the Volt and 8,000 for the Leaf. Chevy has forecast sales of 10,000 by the end of 2011, while Nissan has a more ambitious target of 20,000.

Auto buffs know that every new model faces a long road from launch to “market success,” so a slow start out of the gate isn’t the death knell for EVs that talk radio naysayers have been trumpeting. At the moment, Volts are only trickling through the pipeline, as every unit must be transported from the company’s Michigan factory to the test markets in New York and California. Many GM dealers around the country have demo models, but none that customers can actually drive off the lot. However, GM claims to be on track to have the Volt available at 2,600 dealerships in all 50 states by year’s end.

Image: Chevrolet