By Todd Woody
Forbes
Electric car sales reached a record in November for the fourth consecutive month as new models like the Ford C-Max Energi plug-in electric hybrid helped juice buyer interest.
According to analyst Aaron Chew of the Maxim Group, dealers sold 7,600 electric cars in November, bringing total sales for 2012 to 47,500 to date. Chew expects the year to end with sales of 56,000 electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.
That of course is but a rounding error for most carmakers. Ford, for instance, sold 177,673 cars in November alone and electric vehicle sales are just .4% of total U.S. automotive sales for the year to date.
And while the slow but steady trend in electric car sales depends in part on various incentives – Nissan Leaf sales jumped after the automaker offered $199 leases and $5,000 price breaks – the introduction of new models has helped boost sales.
Ford sold 1,259 of its C-Max Energi in November just a month after the plug-in electric hybrid was introduced. That came close to the Chevrolet Volt, which recorded sales of 1,519 for the month and was not far behind the Toyota Prius plug-in, which had sales of 1,766 in November, according to Maxim.
