EV Registrations Sit around 7 Percent in March
Stats nerds at S&P Global Mobility have detailed some registration data for electric vehicles in this country through the first three months of this year – and the market share continues to sit at around 7 percent.
With that statistic in mind, we could have gone the clickbait route and used a headline shouting that “93 Percent of Americans Chose Not to Buy an EV” which would have been technically true but also rather bombastic and would have been an insult to our informed readers. It would be like saying “85 Percent of American Car Buyers Shunned General Motors” in the first quarter of this year – also true in terms of market share but is an intentional twisting of the numbers.
In March, it is said the EV share of our light-vehicle market rose to 7.1 percent from 6.8 percent the month prior. For the entire quarter, reports say registrations of EVs grew about five percent to 264,268 meaning its market share was all but flat at 6.9 percent. In contrast, the entire 2023 calendar year saw the share grow by half compared to the 2022 annum, explaining all those headlines screaming that EV sales have stagnated and prompting the likes of GM to reconsider its stance on plug-in hybrids.
Examiners like the S&P are increasingly using registrations as a yardstick with which to measure EV growth since companies like Tesla don’t accurately report sales numbers while numerous other brands don’t break out EV versus hybrid sales for certain models which may have the same name.
Other nuggets in the report include Tesla’s rough road, with registrations of that brand falling 12 percent year-over-year in March, a performance which helped it shed market share to 52.4 percent compared to over 60 percent one year prior. February marked its first monthly decline in registrations since August 2020, apparently. Meanwhile, Ford saw its registrations triple in March as Hyundai saw a doubling.
Of course, statistics can be a funny thing. If I have one terrible hooptie in my backyard and buy two more at auction, I have tripled my fleet. Someone else might have had eight of the things and suffered a 50 percent loss thanks to a devastating carburetor fire after a moment’s inattention. That guy still has more cars than me, though.
What do you think? Will the EV market stagnate at 7 percent for a while? Or is this merely like ‘the stall’ when smoking a brisket?
[Image: Ford]
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Matthew buys, sells, fixes, & races cars. As a human index of auto & auction knowledge, he is fond of making money and offering loud opinions.
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What is the magical white swan event in the foreseeable future that will suddenly reverse the trend?
Success tends to follow success, and likewise failure. The perception, other than among true believers, is that e-cars are a lost cause. Neither government fiat, nor government bribery, nor even the promise of superior virtue among one's peers have been enough to push past the early adapter curve. Either the bust-out is right now for e-cars, or it doesn't happen. Marketing 101.
Even subtle language-manipulation, such as deeming those possessing common sense as suffering from some sort of vague anxiety (eg, "range anxiety") has not been enough to induce people to care.
Twenty years from now funny AI-generated comedians will make fun of the '20s, and their obsession with theose silly half-forgotten EVs. They will point out that, yes, EVs actually ran on electricity generated by such organic fuels as coal and natural gas after all, and then they will perform synthesized laughter at us.
Dent those gigacastings > scrap the car?