EV adoption

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Tesla may be in trouble, but other EVs are selling just fine

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relax, EVs aren’t dead —

Almost every other automaker is seeing double-digit EV sales growth.

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Generic electric car charging on a city street

Getty Images/3alexd

Have electric vehicles been overhyped? A casual observer might have come to that conclusion after almost a year of stories in the media about EVs languishing on lots and letters to the White House asking for a national electrification mandate to be watered down or rolled back. EVs were even a pain point during last year’s auto worker industrial action. But a look at the sales data paints a different picture, one where Tesla’s outsize role in the market has had a distorting effect.

“EVs are the future. Our numbers bear that out. Current challenges will be overcome by the industry and government, and EVs will regain momentum and will ultimately dominate the automotive market,” said Martin Cardell, head of global mobility solutions at consultancy firm EY.

Public perception hasn’t been helped by recent memories of supply shortages and pandemic price gouging, but the chorus of concerns about EV sales became noticeably louder toward the end of last year and the beginning of 2024. EV sales in 2023 grew by 47 percent year on year, but the first three months of this year failed to show such massive growth. In fact, sales in Q1 2024 were up only 2.6 percent over the same period in 2023.

Tesla doesn’t break out its sales data by region anymore, but its new US registrations were down by as much as 25 percent, month on month, as its overall marketshare of EVs closes in on 50 percent this year; by contrast, Tesla was 80 percent of the US EV market in 2020. (Overall, Tesla’s global deliveries fell by 8.5 percent.)

The other sick patient in addition to Tesla is Volkswagen. Despite local production of the ID.4 crossover in Chattanooga, Tennessee, the brand saw EV sales fall by 37 percent in Q1. It has also abandoned plans to bring the ID.7 electric sedan to North America, and the long-awaited ID. Buzz microbus has yet to reach US showrooms more than eight years after it was first shown here.

But all this noise has been enough to spook executives into action. Both Ford and General Motors took the embarrassing step of rolling back their electrification goals, all but admitting they bet on the wrong horse. Instead of turning away from new internal combustion engine products, we’re set for a new flurry of hybrids—just don’t expect any of them to show up before 2026.

GM’s difficulty in ramping up its new family of EVs built around the UItium battery platform has been well-documented. The end of production of the Chevrolet Bolt, which sold for less than $30,000, didn’t help; with the little electric hatchback (and the slightly stretched Bolt EUV) no longer contributing to the sales charts, GM’s Q1 EV sales fell by 21 percent.

The problems with assembling Ultium cells into battery packs appears to be in GM’s past now. Cadillac Lyriqs are starting to become a common sight on the road, and GM CEO Mary Barra told Bloomberg that GM expects to build between 200,000 and 300,000 Ultium-based EVs this year, a huge increase over the 13,838 it managed to ship last year.

Meanwhile, Ford’s EV “slump” is nothing of the kind. In May, it sold 91 percent more F-150 Lightnings than last year. E-Transit sales were up 77 percent. And the Mustang Mach-E showed growth of 46 percent. In total, Ford’s EV sales for the first five months of this year were up 87.7 percent on 2023, helped no doubt by the company’s price cuts.

High double-digit sales growth (in Q1 2024) has also been occurring at Hyundai and Kia (up 56.1 percent), BMW (up 57.8 percent), Rivian (up 58.8 percent), Mercedes (up 66.9 percent), and Toyota (up 85.9 percent).

“As anticipated, Tesla’s sales took a hit, influencing the overall market dynamics. However, a few brands saw significant EV sales increases, achieving over 50 percent year-over-year growth,” said Stephanie Valdez Streaty, director of industry insights at Cox Automotive. “As noted in January, we are calling 2024 ‘the Year of More.’ More new products, more incentives, more inventory, more leasing and more infrastructure will drive EV sales higher this year. Even so, we’ll continue to see ups and downs as the industry moves toward electrification.”

“We view the current headwinds that EV sales are experiencing in the US and Europe as short-term in nature. The buildup of charging infrastructure, availability of affordable EV models with a fall in battery prices, combined with government regulations, will drive sustainable BEV growth in the long run,” said Cardell.

Tesla may be in trouble, but other EVs are selling just fine Read More »

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Think EVs are too expensive? Here are 11 for under $40K.

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or buy used —

The average new car costs more than $47,000—here are 17 EVs for less than that.

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A piggy bank inside a

Aurich Lawson | Getty Images

New cars have gotten pretty expensive, and it feels like electric cars are especially pricey. The average sale price of a new car has dropped a couple of thousand dollars since it peaked in early 2023, but at more than $47,400 in April, sticker shock is understandable, particularly as interest rates have doubled over the course of the past two years. Based on reader feedback, that impression is particularly pronounced when it comes to new electric vehicles. But EV prices have actually been falling, and inventory is growing. So we put together a list of all the new EVs on sale today for less than the average transaction price of a new car. You can buy 17 different EVs for less than the average price of a new car, and 11 are available for less than $40,000.

Nissan Leaf

The Leaf is the cheapest new EV on sale today.

Enlarge / The Leaf is the cheapest new EV on sale today.

Jonathan Gitlin

First on the list is the Nissan Leaf, which starts at just $28,140 for the version with a 40 kWh battery pack. Nissan was an early EV pioneer, and the current Leaf is the second generation to wear the name. But it hasn’t always been on the cutting edge, and some of the Leaf’s specs that felt a little outdated in 2017 may feel more so in 2024. The Leaf is eligible for a $3,750 IRS clean vehicle tax credit.

Mini SE

There's an old joke where I come from.

Enlarge / There’s an old joke where I come from. “How do you get to Wales in a Mini,” it asks, except instead of “to Wales” the country, the joke is “two whales,” and the answer is “one in the front, one in the back.” Such jokes are unlikely to be repeated about the new battery electric Mini Cooper SE, but if they are, the answer will probably be “slowly, because you have to stop and charge it a lot.”

Jonathan Gitlin

With new tariffs on Chinese-made EVs, no one is entirely sure when the next electric Mini Cooper will go on sale in the US. But right now, you can buy the current Mini Cooper SE for a starting price of $30,900. Although the suspension can feel stiffer than a supercar’s, if you live in a city and don’t need mega-miles of range, the Mini fits the bill quite effectively and is much more of a hoot to drive (and much cheaper) than the John Cooper Works GP mini.

Fiat 500e

Fiat thinks the 500e makes the perfect second car.

Enlarge / Fiat thinks the 500e makes the perfect second car.

Stephen Edelstein

The $32,500 electric Fiat 500e is one of the newest cars on our list; we only drove it for the first time in early April. It has more range than a Mini, and it charges faster, too.

Think EVs are too expensive? Here are 11 for under $40K. Read More »

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Ford cuts EV plans even as it becomes nation’s second-largest EV brand

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the market is weird —

Ford is selling more EVs than ever, but it wants to build more hybrids instead.

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A ford F-150 Lightning being charged at the production line

Enlarge / Electric F-150 sales are up 80 percent year over year.

Ford

Ford has caught a case of electric vehicle pessimism and is scaling back or delaying some of its plans for new EV models. A new electric pickup, scheduled to go into production next year, has been pushed back to 2026. And a three-row electric SUV has been given a two-year delay and will now not be available until 2027 at the earliest. The kicker? The automaker has published its sales for the first quarter of the year, and its EV sales are up a whopping 86 percent year over year.

Instead, the Blue Oval wants to focus on making more hybrids instead and says it will have hybrid options for all its internal combustion engine-powered vehicles by 2030. Ford’s current range of hybrids is not extensive, but it grew 42 percent in Q1 compared to the first three months of 2023.

Many of those—19,660 to be exact—were the Maverick Hybrid, despite the fact that for model year 2024, Ford removed the hybrid powertrain as the base model and effectively gave the electrified pickup a $1,500 price hike. In total, Ford sold 38,421 hybrids in Q1 2024, which it says makes this the best-ever quarter for hybrid sales. But they represent a rather small slice of its overall pie—just 7.6 percent of the 508,083 vehicles that Ford sold for the first three months of the year.

Still, that towers above the company’s total EV sales, which topped out at 20,223 for Q1. The F-150 Lightning was up 80 percent year over year for Q1, with 7,743 trucks sold. But one can see why Ford has cut production shifts for the Lightning—total F-series sales for the quarter were 152,943, suggesting that traditional truck buyers are yet to be tempted by the EV version en masse.

But with Mustang Mach-E sales up 77 percent to 9,589 sold, and a 148 percent growth for the E-Transit, Ford is the country’s second-bestselling EV brand. Despite that status, Ford expects that its EV division will continue to lose money—up to $5.5 billion in 2024, although that is more than offset by the money it expects to make selling commercial vehicles and gasoline-powered vehicles.

Meanwhile, it continues to build a series of battery factory joint ventures in Kentucky and Tennessee, as well as a battery facility in Michigan. It’s also working on a smaller, cheaper EV platform.

EV sales are still growing

Those details say a lot about the overall EV market in the US, which is not quite as bad as many of the naysayers claim, but it also leaves quite a lot to be desired if you’re anxious about US transport-related carbon emissions. In fact, EV sales still grew in Q1 overall, although only by 3.3 percent compared to a total growth in car sales of 5.1 percent. (For all of 2023, EV sales in the US grew 47 percent year over year.)

Other automakers also had a good Q1 in terms of EV sales. Rivian deliveries were up 71 percent. Kia EV sales were up by 88 percent. Hyundai Ioniq 5 sales increased by 19 percent. And Audi sold 23 percent more Q4 e-trons and 47 percent more Q8 e-trons despite overall Audi sales dropping 16 percent.

But not everyone is doing great. Volkswagen sold 37 percent fewer ID.4 crossovers last quarter, even as the brand’s sales grew by 21 percent. And then there’s Tesla. Despite being far and away the largest EV brand in the US, it had a no-good Q1, with an 8.5 percent decline in deliveries and a massive overproduction glut that has led to yet another round of price cuts for vehicles in its inventory. Tesla has also apparently canceled plans for a cheap “Model 2” EV in favor of a renewed focus on robotaxis.

Ford cuts EV plans even as it becomes nation’s second-largest EV brand Read More »

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EV buyers want SUVs and sedans, not minivans or trucks, survey says

Cars, EV adoption / /

people really hate minivans —

There’s also a wide spread when it comes to acceptable range, Edmunds found.

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Car dealer is giving key for a new car to a woman

Enlarge / Edmunds surveyed 300 car buyers who were considering a new EV in January 2024.

Getty Images

There is a significant mismatch between the people who want to buy electric vehicles and the people who want to sell them. That’s according to data from a new survey by Edmunds, which polled people shopping for new cars in January. These prospective buyers want affordable sedans and SUVs, segments of the market that are being ignored by automakers. Instead, they’re being offered expensive EVs, including plenty of trucks, for which there is little demand.

Almost half (47 percent) of the 300 people surveyed said they want to spend less than $40,000 on a new EV. And just over 1 in 5 (22 percent) said that they don’t want to pay more than $30,000. But currently, no new EV is on sale below this price, and only a handful of EVs (Mini Cooper SE, Fiat 500e, Hyundai Kona Electric, Nissan Leaf, and Tesla Model 3) are on sale for less than $40,000.

According to Edmunds’ data, the average transaction price of a new EV was $61,702 in 2023, compared to $47,450 for other vehicles.

When it comes to body styles, and despite what you might read in the comments to automotive articles at Ars, SUVs are as popular as sedans with potential buyers; 43 percent said they want a sedan (or wagon), and 42 percent want an SUV. Edmunds’ data does not make a minivan boom seem any more likely—appeal for minivans was minuscule, at just 5 percent.

Things don’t look great for the electric pickup truck, either. The Detroit-based automakers have had high hopes for the electrified versions of their biggest cash cows, but Ford’s F-150 Lightning (the first to reach market) has sat on lots as dealers stocked up on fully loaded models that are often double the price of the $40,000 model that Ford spent so much time telling us about.

Just 10 percent of Edmunds’ survey respondents said they were shopping for an electric pickup. Ironically, this probably spells good news for the automakers, Edmunds says—truck buyers will keep buying gasoline- and diesel-powered pickups, which contribute greatly to automaker profits.

The survey shows that car buyers looking for EVs are, on the whole, not well-informed. Twelve percent said they trust Toyota best when it comes to EVs, despite the fact that the Japanese automaker is years behind its rivals and has but a single, somewhat mediocre EV on sale today in 2024. Another 8 percent named Honda, which similarly is lagging the industry in terms of electrification.

Tesla scored top (23 percent), followed by BMW (13 percent)—both companies with extensive experience in electrifying automobiles. Ford and Chevrolet shared fifth place (7 percent), but neither Kia nor Hyundai were namechecked, despite offering a range of EVs, most of which are best in class.

Edmunds also found a pretty wide spread when it asked car buyers how much range they needed. Just fewer than 1 in 4 (24 percent) said they’d be happy with 99 miles (160 km) or less. Another 22 percent said between 100–199 miles (160–320 km) was fine, with 17 percent indicating that 200–299 miles (320–481 km) was the sweet spot. Most EVs on sale today fall into this range bracket.

But a significant number of potential EV buyers indicated a desire for much more range. Nineteen percent wanted 300–399 miles (482–642 km)—the Hyundai Ioniq 6, Tesla Model 3, Mercedes-Benz EQS, BMW i4 and i7, and the Polestar 2 all fit this bill.

Another 8 percent wanted 400–499 miles (642–804 km) of range in their new EV, which limits them to the Tesla Model S, which has a claimed range of 405 miles (651 km). The 5 percent of survey recipients who claimed a desired range of 500–599 miles (805-964 km) at least have the Lucid Air as an option; no EV exists that can satisfy the 4 percent who demand more than 600 miles (964 km) of range.

EV buyers want SUVs and sedans, not minivans or trucks, survey says Read More »

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EV bargains to be found as Hertz sells off some of its electric cars

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tell me where it hertz —

More than 1,200 EVs are cheap enough to qualify for the used clean vehicle tax credit.

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A Silver Chevrolet Bolt EUV next to a beach house

Enlarge / Hertz currently has more than a thousand Bolt EUVs for sale as they leave its rental car fleet.

Chevrolet

Electric vehicles have many advantages over cars that still use internal combustion engines. They’re far more efficient, they’re quieter, and they usually have much more torque than their gasoline-powered equivalents. But we’re still far from achieving price parity between powertrains. In other words, EVs are expensive.

One place you can find some bargains, though, is the rental company Hertz, which currently has more than 2,100 EVs for sale, more than half of which are affordable enough to qualify for the IRS used clean vehicle tax credit.

Hertz has been adding a lot of EVs to its fleet as part of the company’s decarbonization plan. In 2021, it revealed plans to purchase 100,000 Teslas. However, the controversial car maker had delivered fewer than half of those two years later, and long repair times for customer-inflicted damage have seen the rental agency divest itself of many of those Teslas and diversify its fleet, adding plenty of Polestars, Kias, and Chevrolets.

This January, we learned that Hertz plans to sell off about 20,000 of its EVs, and there are currently 2,115 EVs up for grabs among the 31,134 cars for sale on its used car sales site.

There are 761 Teslas for sale, 63 of which are Models 3 priced at less than $25,000—the price cap for the IRS used clean vehicle tax credit. Some of them have been around the block a few times, with more than 90,000 miles on the odometer (145,000 km), but there are others with less than 50,000 miles (80,500 km) on them.

Better bargains are available if you want a Chevy Bolt—Hertz currently has 1,178 Bolt EUVs (and another eight Bolt EVs) for sale. All of these are cheap enough to qualify for the used clean vehicle tax credit, and plenty of them are low-mileage examples with less than 10,000 miles (16,000 km) on the clock.

There are a handful of other makes and models of EVs also available. You could pick from one of 126 Subaru Solterras, for example, which range from $27,027 to $33,002. And there are 42 Kia EV6s, ranging from $27,120 to $39,901. These are too expensive for the used clean vehicle tax credit, though.

Not everyone reading this will feel entirely comfortable buying an ex-rental car, given the hard lives that such vehicles often lead. But if you’re feeling brave, there are some big savings to be had versus buying new. Anecdotally, the only thing that went wrong with the ex-rental Ford Ka I used to own was a worn-out clutch—not a problem an EV will suffer from.

EV bargains to be found as Hertz sells off some of its electric cars Read More »

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Car dealers step up opposition to White House fuel efficiency targets

CAFE standards, car dealerships, Cars, EV adoption / /
A row of empty EV charging spaces

Richard Newstead/Getty Images

Electric vehicle sales had a pretty good 2023 in North America, with more than 1.1 million battery EVs and just under 300,000 plug-in hybrid EVs finding new homes. That’s a 50 percent increase on 2022, yet the last few months have seen the trade and business presses report a string of negative stories about EV adoption. And it’s not just news stories—major automakers are scaling back their EV ambitions, and together with auto dealerships, they’re lobbying the White House to water down its plan to reduce transportation-related carbon emissions.

While US car buyers are still choosing EVs in greater numbers, the rate of increase is beginning to slow. According to a report from S&P Global, EV registrations grew by 23 percent in December, faster than the general increase in new light vehicle sales (15 percent year over year). But market leaders did not do so well. Tesla only grew sales by 11 percent; at Ford, they rose by 13 percent. Chevrolet saw EV sales drop by 26 percent as it finally exhausted its supply of the low-cost Bolt EV.

Car buyers’ concerns

Similarly, a survey from Deloitte provides a little more pessimism when it comes to EV adoption. It has found that only 6 percent of buyers are now considering a battery EV, down from 7 percent in 2023. Demand for plug-in hybrids has also fallen, from 7 percent in 2023 to 5 percent in 2024. Instead, more buyers want gasoline- or diesel-powered vehicles, a full two-thirds in 2024 compared to 58 percent last year.

The high cost of new plug-in vehicles doesn’t help, despite government subsidies in the form of a tax credit. Deloitte’s data shows that among people intending to buy an EV, 74 percent of them want to pay $50,000 or less.

“Despite availability of government incentives, the rise in interest rates is adding stress to people’s wallets,” said Masa Hasegawa, Deloitte’s principal for the US automotive sector. “In addition to affordability, our study shows that there are several key apprehensions consumers still have about purchasing and owning BEVs, such as the consistency and reliability of charging experience and range anxiety. This will evolve over time, but they remain at the top of mind for many consumers today.”

Misinformation abounds

Some of those apprehensions are well-founded; 40 percent cite a lack of home charging, for instance, and half are concerned about the time it takes to recharge an EV. Range anxiety continues to be a problem, too; 49 percent worried about driving range, one in three worried about cold-weather performance, and 28 percent were concerned about trips requiring more advanced planning than they were used to.

However, some other concerns suggest a real lack of knowledge among the general public regarding some aspects of EVs. Sixty-nine percent of people intending to buy an EV were somewhat or very concerned about the end-to-end environmental impact of an EV—higher than the 56 percent of people who intend their next car to have an internal combustion engine.

While it is correct that an EV requires more energy to build, an electric powertrain is so much more efficient than even the best hybrid powertrains that it only requires a few years of driving for the EV to come out ahead.

There are some unrealistic expectations out there, too. Forty-six percent of Deloitte’s survey respondents said they would need an EV with at least 400 miles of range before they’d consider purchasing one, a proportion that grew to 60 percent when just taking into account those living in suburban and rural areas. While battery energy density and EV powertrain efficiency both continue to improve, currently only Lucid sells an EV with more than 500 miles of range, while Tesla claims its Model S has a 405-mile range (something Tesla owners might dispute.)

Car dealers step up opposition to White House fuel efficiency targets Read More »