I found some interesting information about electric vehicle (EV) sales in the US of A. All of this information comes from the Argonne National Laboratory and the US Census Vehicle Inventory and Use database. The first is the amazing rise of EV Sales over the last five years. The purple line on top is total light duty vehicle sales per month across the US (scale on right side). We average a bit over one million vehicles sold each month. The blue is battery electric vehicle sales (scale on left side) and the orange is plug-in hybrid vehicle sales (also left side). Last year the average for BEV sales was over 9% of the total and that number was a wonderful surprise to me (apparently I was not keeping track). The projection for 2024 is around 14% which is an astonishing rise in the automobile world. People really like electric vehicles and that feeling is spreading.
There is a small flood of anti-EV channels appearing on Youtube recently that spread complete lies saying “Buyers regret the EV purchase” and “Ford dropping EVs” or something similar. It is true that EV sales go up and down from month to month but the first chart shows that EV sales track movements in overall vehicle sales. The only way to show a decrease is by carefully picking the data points and implying a general trend — lies by omission (of the rest of the data).
This next chart shows BEV sales and PHEV sales as a percent of total vehicle sales. Manufacturers are looking at these types of charts very closely and seeing the future unfold. We have about 180 million registered vehicles of which 169 million are light duty (cars, minivans, SUVs, and pickups). Of that about 4 million are BEVs, but the sales trend is remarkable in that BEVs are selling at an average of one million per year.
The next chart shows the number of EVs registered in each state. The number one state is California (no surprise at all) but the next two states are Florida and Texas so maybe the conservatives are getting EV fever.
So there is some good news and the Biden-Harris administration is backing this transition with serious money going to charging infrastructure and battery manufacturing which is another reason to vote blue. I drove a rental EV for the first time recently and I really liked it — but not the public recharging. What do you think or are your experiences?
