- North American sales of electric cars grew 14 percent in April versus the same month last year, according to S&P Global Mobility.
- Excluding Tesla’s dismal figures from the April data inflates EV growth to 69 percent.
- Despite a recent facelift, Model 3 sales were down 54 percent between January and April.
Here’s some news to brighten the day of legacy automaker CEOs who are too far down the electrification path to change direction in response to tales of shrinking demand. North American EV sales were up 14 percent in April of this year versus the same month in 2023.
And although the January to April numbers were broadly the same as last year’s, something very strange happens if you exclude Tesla’s results. Remove Elon’s crew from the equation and EV sales were up 69 percent in the first few months of 2024, according to S&P Global Mobility.
Related: Ioniq 5 Sales Up 18 Percent This Year As Hyundai Posts All-Time Record Q1
Tesla’s misery has nothing to do with the Cybertruck, which notched up 2,181 registrations in April, more than it did in the entire first quarter. Instead, they’re down to a disastrous showing for the once-mighty Model 3, Auto News reports.
Despite the arrival of a facelifted car at the start of 2024, sales of the sedan fell 55 percent in April and were down 54 percent in January to April. The brand’s share of the electric market has dropped from 60 to 50 percent as a result, the data shows.
Analysts say this is partly down the Model 3 being dropped from the list of EVs eligible for tax credits. But now that both the Long Range and Performance are back in Biden’s good books, demand could recover for all except the basic car, which is still denied state aid.
Ford was the best-performing non-Tesla brand – its registrations mushroomed 169 percent in April to more than 8,300 thanks to a strong showing by the Mach-E, and a surge in demand for the F-150 Lightning which found 2,509 homes. But a look at the figures in the table above gives some perspective: Tesla is still miles ahead of Ford in the EV sales charts.
Third-place Hyundai delivered 6,355 EVs (up 75 percent), Kia sold 5,340 (up a whoppping 172 percent), and thanks to humungous five-figure incentives, Toyota bZ4X demand jumped from a pitiful 625 in April 2023 to 4,666 this April.
