Electric car Delco. These early cars were eventually withdrawn from the U.S. market. California electric automaker Tesla Motors began development in 2004 on what would become the Tesla Roadster (2008), which was first delivered to customers in 2008. The Roadster was the first highway legal serial production all-electric car to use lithium-ion battery cells, and the first production all-electric car to travel more than per charge. Tesla global sales passed 250,000 units in September 2017. The Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi Alliance achieved the milestone of 500,000 units electric vehicles sold in October 2017. Tesla sold its 200,000th Model S in the fourth quarter of 2017.
Plug-in electric vehicles in the United States 94% of the plug-in sales. In 2014 the Leaf took the lead, with 30,200 units sold, with the Volt ranking second with 18,805, followed by the Model S with 16,689 units. The Tesla Model S, with 25,202 units delivered, was the top selling plug-in car in 2015, followed by the Nissan Leaf with 17,269 units, the Volt with 15,393, and the BMW i3 with 11,024. For a second year on a row, the Model S was the top selling plug-in car with about 29,156 units sold in 2016, followed by the Volt with 24,739, Model X with about 18,028, Ford