Tesla Model S Barely Beats Chevy Bolt In U.S. Electric Vehicle Sales For August

Tesla has regained the top monthly sales slot for electric vehicles in the U.S. market, by selling an estimated 43 more Model S cars than Chevy sold Bolts. That is how tight the sales race in the U.S. electric car market is right now.

Tesla Model S Top Sales Estimate

Tesla does not report its monthly sales typically. Investors and fans have to wring the estimate out of registration and VIN reporting. Inside EVs remains the most reliable source for these estimates. The publication guestimates that 2,150 Model S cars were delivered in the month of August. Chevy delivered 2,107 Bolts and Toyota delivered 1,820 Prius Primes.

Year To Date EV Sales Tally
Year to date, Tesla leads again with Model S sales of about 14,770. That is about 7 working days sales/production of the Toyota RAV4 for perspective. Still, it leads this tiny segment in overall sales for 2017 to date. Number two in sales is the Chevy Volt with 13,895 units sold, and the Toyota Prius Prime is in third place with 13,157 units sold. Check out the full sales chart at Inside EVs for the losers bracket.

Chevy Bolt Coming On Strong
The Bolt has just this month gone on sale in every U.S. market, yet is still sold only by select dealerships. This will boost its sales volume. As will promotion. One dealer in Rhode Island is running TV spots promoting its inventory of 50 Bolts. Dealers in nearby Massachusetts are offering discounts (not to be confused with incentives) of over $7,000 on both trims of the Bolt. In that target state, Bolts are selling in the low $20ks after all the price reductions are compiled.

Where Is Model 3?
Tesla has not delivered any Model 3 cars to private owners yet. At last tally, Tesla had delivered about 100 Model 3 cars to employees of the company. If that counts as a sale, cool. Tesla promises to be shipping about 5,000 Model 3 cars per week by December.