Could you break out the
Could you break out the totals for retail vs fleet sales vs government mandated sales?? If my guess is correct you are seeing end of quarter buying by government agencies mandated to by electric vehicles. Your article is completely missing the point. Electric cars have found zero traction in the car buying market place.
Simply there is no economic sense to purchasing one. If for $22,000 or less I can by a car that gets 40 mpg or for $44,000 (if government subsidies are eliminated) an electric car with a gas generator (which is what the volt is - a battery with an electric generator in it) that gets me 50mpg there is no benefit to me buying the volt. It will take nearly a decade at @4.50 to make up the difference in price in gas savings alone. But add to that the increase in insurance rates the number is much longer.
Environmentally you are trading one polluting source for another - not eliminating one. And you introduce the massive battery load of highly toxic heavy metals that make up modern batteries. Sorry - this is at BEST and environmental draw. In my view - it is a loosing proposition.
Add to that the massive spending by government to fund charging stations (since not corporation can make a case to build charging stations on the scale necessary to make electric cars practical) just increase everybody's costs. Then the basic inconvenience of waiting 8 hours to charge the car. Sorry - this really is just smoke and mirrors. Nothing more than greens wanting to feel green.