General Motors Co. and Nissan Motor Co., the biggest sellers of rechargeable cars, posted record U.S. plug-in sales in August as their low-cost leases pushed battery-vehicle deliveries this year past last year's tally.

GM delivered 3,351 Chevrolet Volt plug-in sedans last month, up 18 percent from a year earlier, and Nissan's all-electric Leaf hatchback sales more than tripled to 2,420, the companies said Wednesday.

U.S. plug-in hybrid and battery car sales totaled 57,976 in the first eight months of this year, more than the 51,938 for the whole of 2012, data compiled by Bloomberg and Autodata Corp. show.