GM wanted to sell 35,000 to 40,000 of its Chevy Volt electric vehicles in 2012, according to Christian Science Monitor. And though it sold only 23,461, there may be reason for hope. That figure is triple the number sold in 2011.

And according to Chevy's calculations, Volt drivers accounted for over 117 million miles driven – for a total fuel savings of 6.2 million gallons.

The CSM report says sales of the Nissan Leaf grew just 1.5% in 2012 over the previous year and were less than half at 9,819 the 20,000 Nissan had targeted. Toyota's Prius plug-in hybrid did better with 12,750 sales in 2012. And while Ford Focus Electric sales were sluggish, the car to watch may be Ford's hybrid C-MAX which debuted in September and saw 13,309 sales in the four-month period.

EVSE market seeing rapid growth

A Pike Research report says the market for electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) is growing fast and experiencing growing pains as it does so.

According to the new Pike Pulse report, the market has reached a new stage of maturity and ChargePoint (formerly Coulomb Technologies) and DBT are current leaders with high marks for both strategy and execution.

"There has been an influx of new players into the EVSE space, indicating the promise that many companies see in the market," says senior research analyst Lisa Jerram. "This sector is still very young, however, and a large number of players are competing for a relatively small total market. At this stage, it is not surprising that most of the vendors listed in this Pike Pulse are still ranked as contenders."

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