‘The others are scaling up, but slowly’

A recent breakdown of the U.S. electric vehicle market by CleanTechnica proves that sales are still going strong and one company is trouncing the competition. If you haven’t already guessed, that company is Tesla, and it snagged a whopping 55% of U.S. sales overall as of Q1 2024. That means the company has sold more EVs than all the other automakers combined. 

Ford is the closest with an 8% share of the U.S. EV market, even though it’s a distant second. The disparity is a bit shocking when you look at the bar chart. 

The author pointed out: “Tesla just sells so many more units of the Model Y and Model 3 that it’s hard to believe the other automakers are trying.”

Sales of EVs began to pick up in 2020 after a relatively flat period, according to MarketWatch, and by 2022, yearly U.S. EV sales totaled around 1 million units nationwide. Tesla managed to hold on to a 65% share of those, per Cox Automotive.

In 2023, there was a 60% increase in overall EV sales, with 1.6 million sold in the U.S., again per MarketWatch.

If you look at the CleanTechnica timeline and year-over-year changes, you may notice some trends. Compare Q1 2024 to the same period in 2022 and you’ll see sales shot up 71%. However, if you look at Q1 2024 versus Q1 2023, there’s only 2% growth.

Sales of EVs are still growing but at a slower rate. Some attribute this to having fewer early adopters than before as the market evolves. 

According to ING analyst Coco Zhang in an interview with CNN: “The consumers who could be potentially interested in buying one in the first place, they are more likely to have already bought an EV themselves. So now, the challenge comes to unlocking the second wave of consumer adoption in those advanced economies.”

An out-of-balance reliance on Tesla’s sales numbers could also help explain the tiny 2% year-over-year bump. The company had paused its Fremont factory to launch an updated “Highland” version of the Model 3. The Model 3 was the second-highest-selling EV in Q1 2024,  after the Model Y, according to InsideEVs. 

The quality of the vehicles themselves could still be driving customers to overwhelmingly choose Tesla over the competition. 

Commenters on Reddit had positive things to say about the quality of the new Model 3, with one stating: “I test drove one a couple weeks ago and immediately ordered one, the build quality is a significant step above previous revisions.”

Another commenter on the CleanTechnica article added: “A few years ago Tesla accounted for about 80% of US BEV sales, and 65%(?) in 2022 I think. So the others are scaling up, but slowly, and really need to get their act(s) together.”

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