Electric car sales are pretty weak

From the Detroit News:

General Motors Co. said Friday that Chevrolet Volt sales fell 32 percent in October in the face of falling gas prices. 

The Detroit automaker said Volt sales fell to 2,022, down from 2,961 in October 2012. For the year, U.S. Volt sales are now down 2.7 percent to 18,782. 

At the same time, Nissan Motor Co.’s all-electric Leaf sales were up 27 percent in October to 2,002 and are up 167 percent for the year to 18,078. 

"We are seeing sluggish sales of some plug-in hybrids such as the Ford C-Max — down 21 percent — and Chevy Volt — down 32 percent. The most likely culprit responsible for the decline is gas prices and enticing traditional gas-powered vehicles that achieve 40 mpg plus. With fuel prices expected to fall further, the auto industry will be watching carefully to see if the pattern continues,” said Edmunds.com senior analyst Michelle Krebs. . . .

Toyota Motor Corp. said sales of its Prius plug-in hybrid were up 7 percent to 2,095 and are up 4.6 percent for the year to 10,069. In early October, Toyota said it was cutting the price of the slow-selling vehicle by $2,010 for the entry model and $4,620 for the more expensive model with more options. 

So how do these numbers compare to total US sales?  The Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate (SAAR) has been pretty high.

 The SAAR eased to 15.22 million last month. The figure was down from September's 15.26 million and below most forecasters' expectations in the mid-15 million range. . . .

The SAAR for Volt, Leaf, and plug-in Prius thus come to a total of 73,428, or about .48% of total sales.  Tesla has a goal of "21,000 units of Model S this year."  Adding that in raises the percent to 0.62%.