Volt expands its lead among rechargeable cars

The Chevrolet Volt widened its lead as the top-selling U.S. rechargeable car this year as Toyota expanded plug-in Prius deliveries and Nissan said it's working to boost electric Leaf sales.

Sales through September of battery-only vehicles and those with both battery packs and a gasoline engine for added range almost tripled to about 31,400 from 11,094 a year earlier, according to data compiled by Bloomberg News. The Volt, with a record 2,851 sales last month, leads with 16,348 for the year, up fourfold, followed by 7,734 Prius plug-ins and 5,212 Leafs.

GM's addition of a discounted lease for the Volt, currently $299 a month for a car with a $39,145 base price, is boosting demand for the model, Jesse Toprak, an analyst at TrueCar.com, a vehicle pricing and data provider, said Wednesday.

"I'm utterly surprised people are not lining up to get one at that price," Toprak said. "The annual fuel savings alone make this car very appealing."

Demand for rechargeable autos, which large carmakers must sell under rules in California and some other U.S. states, hasn't matched initial expectations. President Barack Obama's administration set a goal of 1 million plug-in sales of such vehicles by 2015, but that would require drastic increases in the next three years. Nissan, which also added a low-cost lease offer for the Leaf, said designing a sales strategy for electric cars has taken longer than planned.

Fisker Automotive said it has sold about 1,500 of its $103,000 plug-in Karma.

Buyers in California can now lease a Leaf hatchback for $199 a month for 36 months, a bargain based on the car's $36,050 base price, Toprak said.

"Volt has made an ultra-competitive marketplace with the offers they have on that vehicle," said Al Castignetti, vice president of U.S. sales for Nissan.

Nissan, which had a goal of selling 20,000 Leafs in the U.S. this year, has been working with dealers to refine how it markets the all-electric car that goes at least 70 miles per charge. The company sold 984 of the hatchbacks last month, up from 685 in August. Still, sales fell 4.6% from a year earlier.

"We're finally starting to get the dealer engagement," Castignetti said. "We're driving more traffic to our dealerships and that's a very good thing."

He didn't provide a revised target for Leaf sales.

"Purchases we're seeing now are really fueled by early adopters," Toprak said. "Until a middle-class family in the middle of the country finds that it makes economic sense to buy one of these cars, you won't see big volume."

The Volt, which gets about 38 miles on a charge, qualifies for a $7,500 federal tax credit, as does the Leaf. The base model plug-in Prius costs $32,000, before a $2,500 federal credit.

Other rechargeable vehicles now on sale include Ford's Focus EV, Honda's Fit EV and Mitsubishi's i-MiEV.

Separately, Toyota said sales of its entire Prius hybrid line doubled to 18,932 last month. Combined Prius sales through September grew to 183,340, surpassing the gasoline-electric car's previous full-year record of 181,221 set in 2007.

Bill Fay, group vice president of Toyota's U.S. sales, said in a conference call Tuesday the company expects to sell as many as 230,000 Prius models this year.