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Nissan Leaf sets new November sales record, Chevy Volt drops again

When you talk to people in the plug-in vehicle industry, one theme you hear repeatedly is that the more plug-in cars that are out there, the better things are for everyone. One reason is that more EVs build a need for more public chargers, and more chargers mean more people see that plugging in is feasible. But there's still something to be said for old-fashioned competition, and in the sales race between the two long-running plug-in vehicles in the US, the Nissan Leaf is resoundingly beating the Chevy Volt for 2014. In fact, it won't be long before the EV's cumulative sales top the PHEV's. But that's a topic for another month. For now, we have the sales results from November. Unsurprisingly, Nissan set another monthly record (that is, the best Leaf sales in any November, the 22nd time in a row we've seen a monthly record) with 2,687 sales last month. That's up 34 percent over last November and up 35 percent year-to-date. Toby Perry, Nissan's director of electric vehicle marketing, said in a statement that, "Our 'Kick Gas' ad campaign and 'No Charge to Charge' launch in Chicago and Atlanta drove an increase in November Leaf sales. Even with gas prices falling across the country, consumers appreciate that the cost of driving a Nissan Leaf is still a fraction of that of a gas-powered car." Over on the Chevy side of the ledger, there were 1,336 Volt sales last month, down 30.4 percent from the 1,920 sold in November 2013. So far this year, Volt sales are down 16.4 percent and Chevy has sold 17,315 Volts in 2014. As we said last month, the Volt slump might be due to people waiting on the new version to make an appearance at the Detroit Auto Show next month before going on sale in the second half of 2015. So far in 2014, Nissan has sold 27,098 Leafs. Look for our detailed post of US green car sales in the near future. Until then, please discuss last month's Leaf and Volt sale in the comments, below. News Source: Nissan, General Motors Green Chevrolet Nissan Electric Hybrid PHEV ev sales hybrid sales

GM executive chief EV engineer says reducing cost of plug-in vehicles is 'huge priority'

As we know, another major automaker investing heavily in electrified vehicles is General Motors, and it's doing things much differently than rivals BMW, Ford or Nissan. The Chevrolet Volt extended-range EV is a modest seller at its $35,000 sticker price but a huge hit with owners. The Chevy Spark BEV, still in limited availability, puts smiley faces on its owners and drivers. The just-introduced Cadillac ELR, a sharp-looking, fun-driving $76,000 luxocoupe take on the Volt's EREV mechanicals, has admittedly low sales expectations. With this interesting trio in showrooms and much more in the works, the third vehicle electrification leader I collared for an interview at Detroit's North American International Auto Show (see #1 and #2) was Pam Fletcher, GM's executive chief engineer, Electrified Vehicles. ABG: Why do your EREVs need four-cylinder power to extend their range when BMW's i3 makes do with an optional 650 cc two-banger? "We designed [the Volt and the ELR] to go anywhere, any time" - Pam Fletcher PF: I get that question all the time: why not something smaller? You don't really need that much. You use the electric to its ability, then you just need to limp. But we designed those cars to go anywhere, any time, and we don't want their performance to be compromised. If you're driving through the mountains, we don't want you to be crawling up grades, or to be limited on any terrain. So it's optimized to be able to travel literally the biggest grades and mountain roads around the globe at posted speeds. Because what if you can't? Another good reason: when the engine is on, you have to run it wide open throttle, max speed, most of the time. And while we can do a lot with acoustics, and the ELR has active noise cancelation, a small-displacement, low cylinder-count engine at high speed, high load all the time isn't something you want to live with. That's how we came up with the balance we did among the key factors of performance, NVH [noise, vibration and harshness] and range. ABG: Where you go from here? Is the range-extender engine due for an update? PF: We know and love the current Volt, and there is still a lot of acclaim about it, so we think it's a good recipe. But we are heavily in the midst of engineering the next-generation car, which I think everyone will love and be excited about.

Watch Evo pick its 2015 Car of the Year in this epic video

With just a few days left in 2015, it's the perfect time to check out Evo's annual Car of the Year test to determine the greatest performance vehicle of the last 12 months. The writers' picks for the 11 finalists spanned a breadth of engaging models and included: Peugeot 208 GTi by Peugeot Sport, Lamborghini Aventador SV, Seat Leon Cupra Sub8, McLaren 675LT, Porsche 991 GT3 RS, Porsche Cayman GT4, Honda Civic Type R, Ferrari 488 GTB, Chevrolet Camaro Z/28, Lotus Evora 400, and Mercedes-AMG GT S. For the venue to test the mettle of these performance machines, Evo stuck close to home this year and visited the twisting roads at the beautiful north coast of Scotland. Racing brothers Marino and Dario Franchitti also came along for the ride to provide two more voices in the competitive challenge to determine a winner. Evo's video explains why each model deserves to be among such rarified company but doesn't gloss over their faults either. There can be only one winner, though. We don't want to spoil it, so check out the clip for magnificent views of these performance machines through the Scottish countryside.