In the process of getting there, Nissan has opened up a dialogue with its owners to help facilitate their early adoption of the car, and is working across the country to significantly increase charging facilities.

The car’s best sales month came just a couple months ago in March with 2,236 units sold, and last month’s 1,937 sold gave the Leaf its second-best month and a 423.5-percent year-over-year increase.

“From the beginning our goal with Leaf has been to bring affordable, zero-emission transportation to the mass market in a practical, fun-to-drive package,” said Erik Gottfried, Nissan director of electric vehicle (EV) marketing and sales strategy. “With more than 25,000 Leafs in the U.S. and 62,000 around the world, we’re seeing the adoption curve for EVs accelerate, and there is tremendous interest not only on the West Coast but in a number of new strongholds like Atlanta, Raleigh, Denver, Dallas, Chicago, St. Louis and many more.”

The first wave of people who are buying the Leaf are among the most well educated and informed people to be found. The car has spurred an active, connected, and of course growing community of owners who’ve jumped into the EV waters, with many saying they are comfortable with their choice.

Objections by those who are either neutral or opposed to electric cars include extended charging times and outright lack of infrastructure, and Nissan has been working on this as well.

“Nissan is taking a three-prong approach to bolster infrastructure by working with commercial charging partners to bring a variety of charging options to our customers, collaborating with businesses to encourage workplace charging on their campuses and engaging in pilots with our dealers to determine how to optimize the role they can play in EV infrastructure,” said Brendan Jones, Nissan’s director of EV infrastructure strategy and deployment. “This enhanced infrastructure—particularly with more businesses offering workplace charging as an employee benefit—builds range confidence and gives EV drivers better end-to-end charging ability, meaning they can leave home fully charged, plug in at work and be charged when they leave.”

Aside from the obvious need for placing more chargers where higher numbers of EVs are concentrated, Jones noted the company has found simply adding chargers to a given area is also a spur for sales. It is a new take on the “If we build it, they will come” adage.

Nissan has already installed about 50 additional chargers in the U.S. where concentrations are highest, and this is just the beginning, it says.

In January this year, Nissan announced plans within 12-18 months from that time to triple the number of EV quick chargers from 200 to 600.

The post 25,000 Nissan Leafs On US Roads And Counting appeared first on HybridCars.com.

November’s Volt sales lull of 1,519 units was a cause of concern for Volt fans, but the car was back over 2,000 sales again for December with 2,633 units sold.

Year-to-date, this makes the Volt the top-selling plug-in electrified vehicle with 23,461 units delivered.

Next in line was the Prius Plug-in which sold 1,361 units in December, and 12,750 for the year despite a staged roll-out beginning in March – thus not a complete selling year.

And, the third place plug-in car for 2012 – among manufacturers that provide monthly sales figures – was the Nissan Leaf with a respectable 1,489 units for December, and 9,819 for calendar year 2012.

Nissan has previously said it would try for 20,000 Leafs sold within this fiscal year ending in March 2013, but its executives have also conceded its CY2012 sales have been less than hoped for, and the goal does look extremely optimistic.

Another car which may have reason for actual optimism is Ford’s recently launched C-MAX Energi which sold 971 units in December, and 2,374 for the calendar year.

Alan Baum, a consultant who puts figures together for the HybridCars.com monthly sales Dashboard also estimates the Tesla Model S sold somewhere in the vicinity of 900, and perhaps 2,400 for the year. These are not set figures however, as Tesla does not actually report numbers regularly, as is the case also for Coda and Fisker.

As for the Volt, its sales for the calendar year did not match early on predictions of 45,000 by GM – now long since retracted – but it did more than triple 2011 sales of 7,671 units.

True also is 2011 Volt sales were limited by a staged roll-out in ts first sales year last year, some regional supply shortages, and the controversy over the car’s battery beginning in November 2011.

For the past five months, the Volt has set a pattern of selling between 2,000 and almost 3,000 units per month, with the lone exception of November.

With the plug-in market as a whole up by nearly 200 percent due to increased units of some existing cars as well as addition of new cars, 2014 promises to be a year to watch also.

NOTE: We will publish the monthly sales Dashboard soon, pending resolution of minor tech issues.

The post Chevy Volt top-selling plug-in vehicle for 2012 appeared first on HybridCars.com.