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This is an excerpt from EERE Network News, a weekly electronic newsletter.

July 24, 2013

Energy Department Releases Updated eGallon Prices

The Energy Department on July 19 highlighted the continued growth of electric vehicle sales—doubling in the first six months of 2013 compared to the same period in 2012—as it released its most recent pricing data showing the low cost of fueling on electricity. The national eGallon, a way for consumers to compare the costs of fueling electric vehicles versus driving on gasoline, rose slightly to $1.18 from $1.14 in the latest monthly numbers, but remains far below the $3.49 national average retail cost of a gallon of gasoline.

Plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) sales tripled from about 17,000 in 2011 to about 52,000 in 2012. During the first six months of 2013, Americans bought over 40,000 PEVs, more than twice as many sold during the same period in 2012. The latest numbers also show how the early years of the PEV market have seen much faster growth than the early years of the hybrid vehicle market. Thirty months after the first hybrid was introduced, monthly sales figures were under 3,000. By comparison, sales of PEVs, first introduced in December 2010, have soared to nearly 9,000 in the last month. At the same time, thanks to technology improvements and growing domestic manufacturing capacity, the cost of a battery has fallen by nearly 50% in the last four years, and is expected to drop to $10,000 by 2015. See the Energy Department press release.