Tesla has cut prices in China and North America, hoping to boost demand for its electric vehicles during a soft period for the global economy.
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The final numbers are for 2022 US battery electric vehicle sales.
Tesla
dominated again, but that doesn’t tell the whole story about electric vehicles in America.
For the full year, 808,619 EVs were sold in the US, including 225,689 in the fourth quarter. That’s up about 66% from the 488,397 sold in all of 2022. Fourth-quarter electric vehicle sales jumped about 58% from 148,977 sold in the final quarter of 2021.
It’s been a pretty good year for disruptive technology. EV penetration of US new car sales in 2022 has reached nearly 6%, up from roughly 3% in 2021. Thirty EV models sold more than 1,000 units in the US last year, up from 18 models that reached that mark in 2021.
Tesla
(ticker: TSLA) ended the year with two of its best-selling EVs, the Model I and the Model 3, and four of its six best-selling models.
Tesla
The market share fell to around 65% of new electric vehicle sales in 2022 from around 72% in 2021.
Tesla’s US market share in Q4 2022 was around 58%, down from nearly 78% in Q4 2021.
Still, no one expected Tesla to hold more than 70% of any global car market. In China for 2022, Tesla’s EV battery sales share is likely to end up around 12%. In Western Europe, Tesla’s final market share of EV battery sales should fall between 15% and 20%.
Between six million and seven million battery electric vehicles, not including plug-in hybrids, were sold worldwide in 2022. That’s about 8% of all new car sales. China leads the way with more than 4 million products sold. Western Europe is second with more than a million, and the USA is third with less than a million. Battery electric penetration into developed markets, those that can pay more new vehicle prices, ended 2022 at roughly 11% to 13% of new car sales.
In the US, Tesla is the only EV seller with multiple models in the top 10 in sales volume.
Ford Motor
(F) just missed that distinction with the all-electric F-150 Lightning coming in 11th. The top 10 electric vehicles in the US for 2022 were Tesla Model I, Tesla Model 3, Ford Mustang Mach E, Chevy Bolt, Tesla Model S, Tesla Model X, Hyundai Ioniq 5,
Volkswagen
ID. 4, Kia EV6 and Rivian R1T.
Ford can take solace in the fact that it has become the second largest seller of electric vehicles in the US for all of 2022. Tesla sold 522,388 EVs in the US in 2022, while Ford sold 61,575 units.
General Motors
(GM) was No. 3, with just over 39,000 units sold. Overall, 11 car brands sold more than 10,000 EVs in 2022, up from seven in 2021.
Looking ahead, U.S. electric vehicle sales should pick up again in 2023, thanks in part to a new $7,500 tax credit passed as part of the Inflation Reduction Act. That credit essentially makes the price of a new Chevy Bolt as low as $21,000. A new Model I can be had for around $46,000. The new F-150 Lightning can cost as little as $49,000.
All three of those prices are less than the nearly $50,000 average price Americans paid for a new car in December.
Electric vehicles are getting cheaper as the US economy weakens a bit. It will be interesting to see how this year plays out for the electric vehicle industry — and the entire car business.
Email Al Root at allen.root@dovjones.com
