The charge is fading for most hybrid and electric cars regardless of the fact that Tesla Motors still has a buzz. Hybrid and electric cars are in less demand with gasoline costs still well below a year earlier. Though there has been a rebound of pump prices from the July to January plunge, a May poll by financial firm Stifel showed that only about 3% of consumers would choose to purchase an electric car. This was less than the 45 %figure that was reported in February. Meanwhile, consumers who would go for hybrids were 24% in comparison to 31% that was reported in February.

There is a different range for hybrid loyalty, with results showing that those who traded electric and hybrid vehicles for a new SUV made up 22%. Edmund.com, an auto site, conducted a survey and presented the mentioned results. Three years ago, the percentage of the number of people trading hybrid and electric vehicles for an SUV was at 11.9%. About 45% of consumers who opted to trade in electric or hybrid cars bought a different alternative-fuel car. In 2012, more than 60% traded in their electric and hybrid cars for alternative-fuel cars. Automakers have been cranking out electric and hybrid cars to meet government emission and fuel-efficiency mandates despite the high costs of their alt-vehicle programs. They are also doing so as not to lag behind in case of technological advancement.

The market share for electric and hybrid cars from January through May was just at 2.8% in comparison to 3.5% market share that was reported last year. The peak year of 2013 saw a 3.7% market share. These figures were presented by the industry analysis director at Edmunds.com, Jessica Caldwell. According to Jessica, there was this belief that plug-in and electric cars might experience hockey-stick-like growth once they came into the market and people got used to the infrastructure and technology. However, this has not been the experience, as the sales of hybrid cars are falling and going in reverse.

In North America, 2, 400 units of the pricey Tesla electric Model S were sold in May. This figure was given by a sales analysis of plug-in cars by InsdeEVs.com. The monthly Tally of Tesla is usually unavailable and it is expected that the second quarter sales figures will be available in July. There were 2, 104 units sold by the electric Nissan Leaf, while 1,618 units were sold by GM’s Chevrolet Volt and 727 units were sold by Toyota for the Prius PHV.