Gadgetory

electric cars are still a fickle market with the car buying public divided between basically two forms of incredulity one camp can't believe you don't drive one the other camp can't believe you fell for one I'm Brian Cooley not here to settle that argument but to give you a scorecard how well the things are selling we're gonna rank electric car sales by their 2014 us full sales numbers for the year which by the way amounted to about one and a half percent of all new car sales leaving out trucks and only about half a percent of all new vehicle sales globally let's go number five the Ford Fusion Energi plug-in eleven thousand copies are so were sold 19 miles on electric charge and overall 88 MPGe now to most eyes this is the best-looking car in the affordable electric world but note it's a plug-in not a pure battery car now the Focus Electric which is pure battery from Ford would come in a week eighth on our list after the smart electric car that has to hurt number four is Toyota's Prius plug-in little over 13,000 sold just six miles on a charge but ninety-five MPGe now the standard Prius that remains the undisputed king of hybrids but this plug-in variant makes a list of V's but just barely in terms of sales kind of measly evey range that battery does give it killer mpge although it's gas mpg is about the same as the regular Prius so there's a whole lot of myth here no wonder it lags at fourth and no wonder Toyota is in hot pursuit of hydrogen right now as its encore with the Prius number three the Tesla Model S little over 17,000 sold 265 miles of range is the big boy in the list 89 MPGe from that the most lauded car on our list pure battery of course the highest range as well if you have the money and want a pure battery electric car this is your benchmark it's also the only Eevee from a company whose entire existence rides on v's going big so all eyes are now on the launch of the more affordable Falcon wing door crossover Model X later this year that will make the company more than a one-note tune for the first time in a number of years number two the Chevy Volt little under 19,000 sold gets 38 miles on a charge ninety-eight MPGe and it is of course not a pure battery car but also a plug-in hybrid of the range extender class with a gas engine that is largely just used as a generator yeah it's a bit of a complicated story to tell even recent volt TV commercials seem to admit that but these were electric yes it's a Chevy Volt what are you doing at a gas station the new model we just saw unveiled in Detroit is going to arrive soon with sleeker looks and now a 50 mile electric range on a charge before we hit number one the Eevee's that sell so slowly you wonder why they're sold at all include Porsches Panamera S II at least if you buy a Tesla 100,000 gets you an actual electric car this just gets you a hybrid and not the one you're wealthy greenie friends are impressed by fewer than 900 last year Honda's Accord plug-in and fit Eevee both around a measly 400 units sold each year what can I say Honda has never been great at selling anything ill electrified and the Mitsubishi I need I forgot they still sold this thing in the US at 196 total units for the year apparently you get is well it looks like a prop from Caddyshack not a real car and that doesn't really fly in the US the number one Eevee in 2014 by sales was the Nissan Leaf over 30,000 moved out the door it gets 84 miles on a charge and has 114 MPGe the leaf was the sales champ every month of the year except December when Tesla had a spike this is the Eevee to beat a sort of bookend in a way to the Model S it's goofy-looking as all get-out and rumor has it Nissan will make the next version look more like a car and perhaps offer a choice of longer range battery packs but that's not for a year or two so this is the one to look at for a regular budget or top five lists to wait the car lover go to scenic on cars.com click on top five