U.S. Electric Vehicle Statistics – Key Players & Opportunities in 2024

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When we look at the most recent US electric vehicle statistics, we see a fascinating picture. The popularity of electric cars is on the rise worldwide, and the US looks to be one of the largest markets for EVs.

For that reason, it’s important for marketers to have a clear view of the global EV market, which means answering the following questions:

We put together this comprehensive guide to answer these very questions – and more. We hope that you find the latest US electric vehicle statistics as electrifying as we have.

Let’s dive in.

Key US Electric Vehicle Statistics

US EV Market Size Statistics

As of 2022, the global market share of electric vehicles is 14%, up 5.3% from the year before. It’s certainly come a long way from 2010, when the EV market share was only 0.01%.

In this section, we take a look at the market share of electric vehicles in the United States of America and estimate how many cars in the US are actually electric.

US EV Market Share & Size

Kelley Blue Book estimates that, in 2023, the market share of electric vehicles in the US was 7.6% – an increase of 1.7% from 2022. In terms of quarters, Q4 of 2023 saw the highest market share of EVs, namely 8.1%. That’s slightly higher than Q3, when EVs’ market share was 7.9%.

In terms of market size, statistics tell us that the United States EV market is forecast to reach $82.8 billion in 2024. As you can see from our infographic, that would make the US one of the top five EV markets in the world, preceded only by China.

How Many Vehicles in the US Are Electric?

According to Experian, as of H1 of 2023, there were a total of 287.6 million cars and light-duty trucks on the road in the US. Electric vehicles made up around 1% of these vehicles. Although that doesn’t seem like a lot, it actually amounts to approximately 2.88 million electric cars.

On top of that, the first half of 2023 saw 11.2 million new retail vehicle registrations in the US. 7.5% of the 11.2 million newly registered cars were electric vehicle registrations. That’s a solid 840,000 registrations!

US EV Sales Statistics

2022 was an excellent year for EV sales in the US, as the country saw almost 1 million units sold (918,460). A significant share of these units was sold by Tesla, nearly 522,400 units or just over 56%. Ford was the second-biggest seller of EVs in the US, with 61,575 units sold within the country.

As you can see, Tesla is an undisputed EV market leader in the US, with a market share of 55.1% However, as you’ll soon see, other automakers are catching up.

In terms of future developments, the numbers tell us there will be 1.28 million EV units sold in the US by the end of 2024. And, by 2028, the sales of EVs in the United States will reach 2.46 million units, that’s 1.46 million more than in 2022!

In the next section, we go over the statistics of sales and revenue of each major EV market player active in the US.

EV Sales & Market by State

The most prolific adopter of electric vehicles in the US is the State of California. Experian tells us that the sunny state made up 35% of all EV registrations in 2023, with LA and San Francisco accounting for the majority of new EVs (148,000 and 86,000, respectively).

New York City came third with 58,000 EV registrations in 2023.

Indeed, California and the Eastern Seaboard are popular markets for electric vehicles. However, we also saw that other US markets experienced significant growth in EV popularity in the last five years. Here’s a breakdown of locations with the highest average 5-year YoY growth.

US EV Pricing Statistics

High prices is one of the most significant concerns for US consumers when it comes to electric vehicles. Indeed, EVs have a much higher price point than fuel-powered cards.

For instance, Tesla’s Model Y starting prices vary from $31,490 to $36,490 around America, according to their Q3 2023 report. And although Model Y was one of the bestselling cars in the US in 2022, it only came fifth overall.

On average, a fully electric vehicle cost $61,448 in 2022, according to Statista. Needless to say, that’s a very significant cost for the majority of US population.

At an average of $32,564, hybrid cars are a lot cheaper. Even so, a buyer would have to pay around 24% more for a hybrid than the an average compact car ($26,282). Therefore, the high price point is likely holding back EV adoption numbers.

Key Players of US EV Market

In this section of our guide, we’ll take a close look at each of the key players of the electric vehicle market in the US. But first, let’s take a look at the market share of top EV providers in the US. Here’s the breakdown, according to a 2023 report by Kelley Blue Book:

Tesla

As mentioned above, Tesla is the leader in the US EV market with a share of 55.1%. Two of the most popular models of electric vehicles – Model Y and Model 3 – are made by Tesla.

Model Y sold 243,800 units in the US in 2022, and Model 3 sold 200,800 units that same year in the region. The market share of Model Y in 2023 was 33.2%, while Model 3 held a share of 18.9%.

Even though Tesla sold an excellent 522,400 units in 2022, they outdid themselves in 2023, managing to sell nearly 654,900 units in the US in total.

Experian also tells us that Tesla is the leader in the luxury EV segment. As of Q2 of 2023, Tesla models were four of the top five bestselling luxury EVs in the US, including Model Y, Model 3, Model X, and Model S.

From 2018 to 2022, Tesla earned the bulk of its revenue from US sales. In FY 2022, Tesla’s US revenue amounted to $40.55 billion, making up almost 50% of the company’s total global revenue of $81.46 billion. Those $40.55 billion amount to an increase of $16.6 billion from Tesla’s US revenue of FY 2021.

General Motors

Tesla might be the market leader in the US in terms of sales, but General Motors (GM) is also gaining ground. Thanks to their significant R&D investments focused on electric vehicles, they’re growing their presence internationally. Their intention is to sell only zero-emission cars by 2035.

Vehicles such as Chevrolet Bolt and GMC Hummer EV are the brainchildren of GM. The latter was quite popular in the US in 2020.

42% of consumers expressed an interest in the Hummer EV, only 6% less than Tesla’s figure. In 2023, however, the Hummer EV’s market share was a mere 0.3%.

Chevrolet Bolt

Although it was supposed to discontinued in 2023, GM’s Chevrolet Bolt showed resounding success in 2023, making GM reverse their plans. That year, the company sold 62,045 units in the US, according to GM’s yearly report. The performance brought Bolt’s EV market share up to 5.2%.

Bolt was also the fourth-bestselling EV in 2022 in the region, after Tesla’s Model Y and 3 and Ford’s Mustang Mach-E. IT sold just over 38,000 units in 2023, with the 4th quarter being the best one at 16,008 units.

Ford

Another automotive brand gaining ground in the US is Ford. Its electric car Mustang Mach-E was the third-best selling EV in the US in 2022, after the two Tesla models.

The company deployed almost 40,000 Mach-E units in 2022, a few thousand more than Chevrolet Bolt. The Mach-E had a 3.4% share of the EV market in the US in 2023, only 1.8% lower than the Bolt.

Another popular electric vehicle by Ford is the F-150 Lightning. In 2022, the 15,617 F-150’s were sold, making it eleventh-best selling EV in the US. The vehicle is a pick-up truck, and is one of the most popular electric pick-up trucks in the US, beating even Tesla. Its market share in 2023 was 3%,  much more significant than the Hummer EV’s.

Like GM, Ford has ambitious EV goals. It’s keenly investing in R&D development related to EVs, and its goal is to have 50% of its fleet fully electric by 2030.

Rivian

A relatively new player in the EV market, Rivian is nonetheless making waves. Its R1T electric car is eighth-best selling EV in the US market, as of 2022. That year, it sold 20,332 units in America.

The R1T model holds about 1.5% of the EV market share, much smaller than the American providers listed here, but still more significant than many European manufacturers.

Despite its moderate success and unicorn status, Rivian is not a profitable company. It’s been suffering net losses since 2019, having incurred its largest loss in 2022, namely $6.76 billion. However, the company continued investing in R&D much like its competitors.

Key Challenges & Opportunities for the US EV Market

By now, you know a lot about the state of the EV market in the US and the key players engaged in it. However, that’s just one piece of the puzzle. To see how the work of these players translates into the market, we need to understand the key opportunities and challenges of that market, and their impacts on consumer preferences.

In this section, we explore these challenges and opportunities.

Fuel Prices

The nature of the US landscape and its urbanization requires most people to drive a car, which means spending a lot of money on gasoline. And indeed, one of the big reasons why the uptake of EVs is on the rise in the US is the increasing fuel prices.

Fuel prices in the US have been increasing for most of 2023, and whilst the short-term energy outlook predicts that they’ll drop in 2024, it’s not for certain. Customers don’t want to spend more on a recurring basis, and we predict that should the fuel prices continue to rise, electric cars would become more popular.

However, the fuel prices are just one of the factors impacting the EV market. Let’s take a look at some others now.

Environmental Concerns

The biggest benefit underpinning electric cars is that they’re considered more environmentally friendly than fuel-powered vehicles. The increasing environmental concerns of American society is a significant opportunity for EV manufacturers to capitalize on.

Indeed, switching to EVs can significantly reduce CO2 emissions. As you can see on the infographic produced by an MIT tool, the EVs depicted produce a lot fewer emissions than the depicted gasoline cars.

However, the low emissions don’t mean that EVs are one hundred percent green. As things stand, a full switch to EVs in the US would require three times as much lithium for the batteries as we produce now.

The required increased lithium mining might jeopardize many countries’ environmental targets, unless the current approach to urbanization in the US is re-evaluated.

Therefore, there are two sides to going green by switching to EV, making environmental concerns both a challenge and an opportunity for manufacturers.

Chargers

To get the most out of electric vehicles, there must be a charging infrastructure in place supporting a large-scale uptake. As of 2023, the United States has a substantial public charger network of 138,111 public chargers in 53,000 locations.

That might seem like a lot, but in order to keep up with the increasing demand for EVs, the network needs to be much larger. The lack of charging infrastructure is a significant concern for 46% of US consumers in relation to EV adoption. S&P Global predicts that the US will need to quadruple the above amount of chargers by the end of 2025 and grow more than eight-fold by 2030.

As a result of this significant growth – and not just in the US but worldwide – Next Move Strategy Consulting predicts that the global EV charging market will reach 12.87 million units by 2030.

High EV & Maintenance Costs

As we mentioned earlier, prohibitive costs of purchasing and maintaining electric vehicles are a significant barrier to its widespread adoption. In fact, 52% of American consumers cite them as their biggest concern when it comes to EVs.

When we’re talking about costs, purchasing an EV is only part of it. 77% of US consumers stated in 2022 that they’d prefer to charge their EV battery at home, but the installation costs for the charging station are quite prohibitive, reaching as high as $2,500.

Tax Credit & Incentives

To address the issue of prohibitive cost and meet their climate targets, governments of many countries have introduced financial incentives and tax credits for purchasing electric vehicles. Although Norway leads the way for such incentives, the US is no exception.

If you purchase an EV in the US in 2023 or after, you could be eligible for a federal income tax credit of up to $7,500. To be eligible for that, you have to meet certain income thresholds and the purchased EV must be new and from an authorized manufacturer.

The battery must also meet certain requirements. As of 2024, this tax break can be obtained at the point of sale rather than at the tax return filing point.

Such credits and incentives are a solid starting point for combating the problem of high costs of electric vehicles. However, we believe that in order to meet the needs of the market and keep up with the inflation, such credits should be periodically reviewed.

Future Trends Impacting US EV Market

In this final section, we look at the future trends affecting the electric cars market in the United States. We believe that some of the current trends will carry on having a significant impact, but also that other ones will emerge.

Charging Infrastructure Expansion

Earlier in the guide, we mentioned that the US would need to significantly expand its EV charging infrastructure to meet the increasing demand for electric cars. Indeed, the popularity of EVs is what’s driving this trend, and vice versa – the more accessible the charging infrastructure is, the more likely people are to adopt electric vehicles.

For that reason, we foresee significant investments into expanding the charging network from both public and private sectors. A larger network would make EVs a more viable option for a much larger target audience, creating more opportunities for EV manufacturers.

Battery Technology Advancements

The other side of the sustainability picture painted by EV marketers is the huge amounts of lithium mining required to meet the increasing demands. For that reason, we believe that the battery technology will advance beyond that.

Such advancements would not only have to accommodate sustainability concerns, but also reduce charging times and prolong the battery life. A combination of these features, together with some others, can potentially address the current limitations of EV batteries, making the cars more competitive.

Regulatory Changes

There have already been significant legislative strides in the US in the last few years in relation to EV funding and R&D. Plus, the tax credits we mentioned earlier are a big part of the green strategy.

Unfortunately, many electric vehicles sold in the US will lose their tax credit status in 2024 due to the changes in battery sourcing rules. We’re convinced that, in order to ensure the consumers are still incentivized, the US government will expand the subsidy initiatives to mitigate that challenge.

Manufacturers’ EV Production Targets

We mentioned some manufacturers in this guide that set themselves the green targets of going either fully electric or partially electric within the next decade.

We expect these increasing commitments to electrification to be adopted by more and more automakers, even those who predominantly make fuel-powered cars. As consumers increasingly move towards sustainability, these companies will need to respond to the market demands.

Final Thoughts

In this guide, we dived into the fascinating world of the American electric vehicle market and its key players. We saw that EVs are becoming more and more popular each year, and the manufacturers are responding to that demand.

We also saw that, in order for the US to fully transition to electric vehicles, a lot more needs to be done in terms of costs, charging infrastructure, legislation, and manufacturing, to name a few. The team at The Tech Report will be watching the developments closely, and we’re very excited to see the innovations in the market.

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