All eyes were set on Tesla to see whether it would meet its sales target of 50,000-52000 units across the globe. Although it failed to meet the target in question, Model S emerged as the best plug-in electric vehicle in terms of sales globally. It clearly outsold all the other plug-in vehicles from well-known automobile companies. For the 2015 calendar year, Model S garnered a total of 50,366 sales, emerging as the topmost selling PEV. In the second place was Nissan Leaf with approximately 43,000 units sold globally for the year 2015. Cumulatively, Model S was ranked second with sales amounting to 107,148 since its launch in the year 2012. Nissan Leaf was cumulative best in terms of sales in first place.

The sales of Tesla Model S in 2015 showed a remarkable increase from 2014 where 31,655 units were sold. In 2014, Model S was the second-best selling plug-in hybrid car. Basically, Model S has shockingly defied all odds and is continually setting new records. Mitsubishi’s Outlander PHEV was the third best-seller with approximately 39,000 units sold in 2015. These sales are credited to the automaker’s overseas market since it is not yet available in the United States. Fourth in line was BYD Qin plug-in hybrid version, which sold about 31,898 units in China alone in 2015. The fifth best seller was BMW’s i3 that sold about 24,057 units across the globe in 2015. These figures were released by Mario R. Duran, sales tracker.

Generally, the global market took in approximately 500,000 plug-in electric vehicles in the year 2015, implying that 10% was accounted for by Tesla. To date, the biggest plug-in electric car market is the Unites States, the home country. Since Model S was launched, the U.S has accounted for around 60% of its total sales. The second is Norway with about 9.4 percent. Other notable countries include Canada, Netherlands, China, Denmark, Switzerland and Germany.

By 2015’s fourth quarter, Tesla was still lagging behind with sales of just about 33,151 units worldwide. From 1^st September to 31^st December, the automaker had sold about 17,400 more vehicles, 208 of which were Model X. Currently, Model S also hopes to sell high units this year and has demonstrated that the plug-in car market has been greatly rewarding. Chevrolet and Nissan are also trying their best to regain their prowess, despite the fact that their sales were slightly low last year. Basically, Model S is the plug in to beat.