By Charles Kennedy of OilPrice.com
Plug-in electric vehicle sales in the United States rose by an annual 29% in the fourth quarter of the year, within the context of a much more moderate total car sales increase of 8%, Clean Technica reported.
Tesla, the biggest EV seller, ranked eighth on a list that saw Toyota at the top with close to 524,000 cars sold during the quarter, followed by Ford, Chevrolet, Honda, and Hyundai completing the top five.
The report suggests 2023 was a strong year for EVs in the United States, following an earlier report with annual sales data from Cox Automotive that said EV sales in the country had reached 1.2 million last year.
This boosted the share of electric vehicles to 7.6% of the total car market but Cox Automotive added that there has been a clear slowdown in demand for EVs, even as Clean Technica said “Don’t believe all the EV anti-hype.”
Cox Automotive, meanwhile, noted that EVs have yet to reach price parity with internal combustion engine vehicles and this was looking increasingly possible over the next few years—thanks to a selection of subsidies—but for now EVs remained quite expensive.
A recent InsideEVs report on November EV sales in the United States confirmed the slowdown in sales growth. Citing data from S&P Global Mobility, the report said that total battery electric vehicle sales in November stood at 89,527, which was a 30% annual increase, it only represented a 1.2% increase in market share—to 7.7% from 6.5% a year earlier.
That report noted that Tesla had registered a relatively modest increase in sales during the penultimate month of the year while other EV makers had seen double-digit sales growth, including Ford, with 21% higher sales in November than a year earlier. Kia and Hyundai saw a twofold increase in their EV sales in the U.S. in November.
