Electric vehicles accounted for 5.6 per cent of new light-vehicle registrations in the United States last year, a significant jump from the 3.1 per cent of 2021, and while various new carmakers entered the EV race, Tesla continues to dominate.
Data from Experian reveals that some 756,534 new EVs were registered in the United States last year, a 57 per cent increase. This came despite sales across the overall market falling by 11 per cent to 13.6 million.
Tesla’s share of the EV market fell from 71 per cent to 64 per cent with it registering a total of 484,351 new vehicles locally throughout 2022. That represented a 41 per cent jump over 2021 and was spearheaded by the Model Y that shifted 228,313 units, Auto News reports. Of the five best-selling EVs in the U.S. last year, four of them were Tesla models, namely the Model 3, Model Y, Model S, and Model X.
Read: VW Group Accounted For 25% Of All New EV Sales In Europe Last Month
Ford was the second-best seller of electric vehicles in the U.S. in 2022, capturing a 7.5 per cent slice of the market. It beat out Chevrolet with its 4.8 per cent share of the market, sitting above Kia with 3.8 per cent and Hyundai with 3.5 per cent.
“Tesla has a tremendous first-mover advantage as it was the first brand to offer truly aspirational EVs to the early adopters,” president and chief analyst at AutoPacific, Ed Kim, told Auto News. “Certainly, with so many competitors coming into the marketplace, Tesla’s market share will recede, as it’s mathematically impossible for its share to remain steady or grow with all the new EV nameplates arriving. But we do expect Tesla’s sales leadership to remain.”
While plenty of new electric vehicles were launched last year, production of them has been slow to ramp up. Indeed, demand generally outstripped supply as legacy automakers cautiously introduced new EVs. Some 12,804 Ford F-150 Lightning models were registered, 38,469 Mustang Mach-Es were registered and registrations of the Kia EV6 and Hyundai Ioniq 5 hit 20,072 and 22,560 respectively.
AutoPacific says that Tesla will continue to be the dominant EV brand for the next few years “with sales set to continue growing significantly over our five-year forecast period.”
