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Welcome back to cnet on cars.
I'm Brian Cooley, well it's time now for our top five that I think it's particularly topical because you recall the massive preorder interest recently in the Tesla mode three But that's not coming to market any time soon.
So instead, let's see what's tearing up the EV sales charts that you can actually buy right now with our top five list of the best selling EVs Q1 of 2016.
This Q1 number is our first Temperature on the EV market for the year.
This data comes from the excellent running sales tallies maintained by INSIDEEVS.COM.
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We start off number 5 with, of all things, the BMW.
In fact, BMW's only pure electric car, and that is The diminutive i3.
Sales are a disaster, to put it politely.
They sold more of these in December of 15 than all of Q1 of 2016.
Part of the problem is the range is, shall we say, disappointing.
Well under 100 miles.
And the car doesn't look anything like what you think a BMW should look like.
That turns off some people.
Now, we could get a shot in the arm for the i3 soon as a 2017 model is expected with better range.
That'll help some.
Number 4 is the Fiat 500e, the e stands for electric.
Boy that's got to sting, BMW's getting out sold by a Fiat.
Now what we've got going on here is a car selling at about half the monthly rate, early 2016 that it did last year.
Not a good directional sign.
Of course, when you take a car that's a tough sell to begin with and then make an EV out of it to really get out in the weeds That's not exactly a formula for a model that's gonna catch on fire.
Our number three car is the only newcomer to this list, so we have no comparison data with Q1 of 2015 because it's the all new Falconwing Tesla Model X.
Now it's been selling at a torrid pace, as you can imagine, but a lot of that has to be assumed to be pent-up demand.
One of a great feel for it's real full year run rate just yet.
I'm also going to be intrigued at the end of 2016 to see what the numbers tell us about how much, if any, cannibalized model S sales.
Our number two car, of course familiar to these kinds of lists, and that of course is the Nissan Leaf.
A car that's kind of standard bearer for the affordable electric.
However, sales trends are well off 2016 against last year.
Part of what's happening here is the Leaf doesn't look real sexy compared to a model three, if you can wait that long.
And the price isn't that much different.
Secondly, Nissan's apparently having a hard time keeping up with demand for the most recent Leaf that has a bigger battery with longer range.
That throttling some of the appetite out there, as well.
Before I take you to number one, let's talk about a car that may be something like that later in the year, and that is the highly anticipated Chevy Bolt.
This is the most eagerly awaited EV of 2016, no two ways about it.
200 miles of range, about 30 grand.
Pretty good looks.
Great practicality, they say they can make up to 50,000 of these.
Now that would be a major player, if it turns out that they can get that kind of demand, meet that kind of production ramp, and keep the keys from falling out.
The number one car on our list, I sound like a broken record on this, of course, the Tesla Model S. Notice the unusual direction of it's sales trend arrow, and the very robust numbers overall.
The Model S is a key car not just because it's doing well, but it's set the tables for Model X and it set the table for the massive interest in the coming Model three.
The downside of all that is Tesla just lost it's ability to ease in to becoming a major car maker.
They now have to figure out a way to do that overnight.
This guy is the reason why.
More top five lists awaits the car lover.
Go to CNETOnCars.com and click on top five.
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