The American-made Volt continued its reign as Prince of Plug-ins in August, selling 2,831 units in the US, its highest monthly figure since it went on sale In December 2010.

The American-made Volt continued its reign as Prince of Plug-ins in August, selling 2,831 units in the US, its highest monthly figure since it went on sale In December 2010. Total US Volt sales for 2012 are 13,497. GM still plans to pause production for four weeks at its Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant, for reasons that remain obscure.

The Prius Plug-in Hybrid passed the LEAF to settle into second place. Toyota moved 1,047 plug-ins in August, out of around 21,000 Prii total, smashing July’s figure of 688. The Prius plug-in is now on sale in 14 states.

The Nissan LEAF dropped to third place – it sold 685 in August, which is still an improvement on its July figure of 395, for a year-to-date total of 4,228. It would seem that, for the moment, car buyers prefer an extended-range PHEV to a pure EV. But we shall see – Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn has predicted that sales will “move up dramatically starting in September.” LEAFs made at Nissan’s plant in Smyrna, Tennessee are expected to show up in showrooms in December. Meanwhile, Japanese news outlet SankeiBiz has reported that Nissan plans to increase the LEAF’s range, and offer a cheaper model, in 2013 (at least in Japan).

We’re not sure what the deal is with Mitsubishi’s i-MiEV – they are available in the US, but they sold only 37 units in August, although they are selling in some volume in Europe. The Ford Focus EV is also getting off to a slow start – a mere 34 were sold in August.

As for the rest of the pack: Honda has said it plans to build only 1,100 Fit EVs for the US market, for lease only. Fisker and Tesla don’t release monthly sales figures.

Image: GM
Source: InsideEVs