There have been quite a few headlines lately implying that the EV movement is in trouble. Is it? Let’s take a look at the facts.
First, here’s a small sampling of some of the recent headlines out there:
“Mustang Mach-E is in trouble” – Motor Biscuit
“Ford just shut down EV production” – Charge Drive
“Slowdown in electric car sales is a symptom of a much uglier problem” – Business Insider
“Even Tesla knows EV Sales Are In Trouble” – Jalopnik
Based on those headlines and others you might think EVs are doomed to be a blip in history but let’s look at the actual sales numbers.
Starting with Tesla, America’s biggest producer of EVs delivered a record-setting 1.8 million EVs in 2023. That’s a 38% year-over-year increase, according to the automaker. The flip side: its profits dropped 22% as it aggressively cut prices.
Next, let’s look at Ford, which has taken a beating on some media outlets over its EV performance.
Sales of its Mustang Mach-E were up 3.3% year over year to 40,771 units. An interesting footnote, its electric pony outsold the gasoline Mustang in December despite Ford giving the gas-powered Mustangs a redesign.
Meanwhile, F-150 Lightning sales increased by 54.7% year over year. Ford sold 24,165 EV pickups in 2023, according to Ford Authority, and set a new record for EV sales in the 4th quarter of 2023.
BMW saw its U.S. EV sales surge 65% year over year, selling 14,374 EVs.
BMW plug-in hybrids U.S. sales accounted for 25,318 vehicles. Taken together, plug-ins and EVs accounted for almost 20% of BMW’s U.S. sales in 2023, according to BMW of North America.
Over at Volkswagen, its ID.4 sales shot up 84.2.% year-over-year in the U.S. to 37,789, the company said.
Total deliveries at Rivian were up 147% year over year to 50,122. Rivian produced a total of 57,232 EVs, up 135% from 2022, according to InsideEVs.
Final numbers for 2023 are still coming in as the automakers work on their annual reports but there’s no question the EV industry as a whole easily achieved another year of record growth record.
As the time of this story’s publishing, Cox Automotive was forecasting that final numbers will put EVs at about 8% of all U.S. vehicle sales in 2023.
In many cases the supply of EVs has finally caught up with demand, meaning it’s now often possible to find a selection of EVs on dealer lots without dealer markups or perhaps even with discounts. From a consumer perspective, that’s good and necessary for EVs to move beyond early adopters to mainstream automotive buyers.
There will be peaks and valleys in growth, profit, loss, and supply chains as the auto industry works through the challenges of transitioning to EVs but none of detracts from the actual numbers that show EVs are continuing to rapidly gain market share.