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Plug-In Car Sales Breach 600,000 Units

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Nissan Leaf (c) Nissan USA

Barely four years after their debut, the sales of plug-in cars zoomed 20% in the last four months, reaching at least 600,000 worldwide, according to Hybrid Cars.  This number excludes commercial vehicles (except small vans), electric motorcycles and buses.

Though just a drop in the bucket compared to the 68.69 billion cars sold worldwide for the year 2013 alone, but it shows the EV uptake is on the rise.  There were only a few electric cars available in 2006 but sales got charged in 2010, with the release of Nissan LEAF and Chevy Volt.

The Old World is taking the lead in the uptake in sales of these new cars, driven by generous government incentives for their owners.  Also, Tesla Motors is charging ahead with sales by generating a lot of interest in EV’s.   The US still remains the biggest plug-in car market with 250,000 in sales, followed by Japan with 95,000.  The world’s second biggest economy, China, seems not too far behind with 4,000 orders of the Tesla S on top of orders from battery and EV maker BYD.

If things continue, plug-in car sales will top 700,000 by the end of the year and will most probably hit the million-unit mark by fall of next year.

Incentives in countries like Norway and the Netherlands have driven demand as the demand for plug-in cars was disproportionately high compared to overall car sales in these countries.  With China also set to offer similar incentives for plug-in car use, demand for such vehicles worldwide could skyrocket.

With such prospects, it would seem that car owners around the world are beginning to see the light.

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