A record 1.2 million U.S. vehicle buyers chose to go electric last year, according to estimates from Kelley Blue Book, a Cox Automotive company. More specifically, 1,189,051 new electric vehicles (EVs) were put into service as the slow shift to an electrified future continued unabated. In 2023, the EV share of the total U.S. vehicle market was 7.6%, according to Kelley Blue Book estimates. That is up from 5.9% in 2022.
Electric Vehicle (EV) sales in the fourth quarter set a record for both volume and share: 317,168 and 8.1%, respectively. And while records were set, the oft-reported slowdown is real. Q4 EV sales increased year over year by 40% – a strong result by any measure, except when compared to the growth the industry saw in previous quarters. The market posted a 49% gain in Q3, and EV sales were up 52% year over year in Q4 2022. By volume, EV sales in Q4 were higher than in Q3 by roughly 5,000 units. The EV market in the U.S. is still growing, but not growing as fast.
The Cox Automotive Economic and Industry Insights team calls 2024 “the Year of More” when it comes to EVs. More new products, more incentives, more inventory, more leasing, more infrastructure – all the more will combine to push EV sales higher in the year ahead. The team forecasts that EV share of the US market in 2024 will reach 10%. (1)
The short answer is no. Light-duty EV sales data from the Alliance for Automotive Innovation shows continued and significant growth in the United States from 2021 through the third quarter of 2023.
Since Q3 2021, EV sales have increased every quarter, and the share of total light-duty vehicle sales that EVs represent isn’t shrinking, either. The share of new sales that are plug-in electric increased from about 3% in Q1 2021 to about 7% in 2022 and then reached more than 10% in Q3 2023. (2)
Significant investments have been made in the automotive EV industry in North Carolina in the past 12 months. Per Andy Camp, VP of Automation Solutions and Solutions for ES&E, “We’ve seen a lot of activity in this space, specifically in battery technology. We see a ton of growth in EV battery and Auto manufacturing.”
Read this recent TED article to learn more and see how ES&E and automation can contribute to the success of this growing market.
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