Auto Brands Leading the US EV Revolution — CHARTS

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Which auto brands and auto groups are now ruling the US pure electric vehicle (EV) market? How much competition is there at the top now? Let’s roll into the numbers and charts and see.

First of all, yes, despite Tesla losing sales year over year for two years in a row, it is still far and away the king of the US EV market. (And, again, this ain’t no democracy.) That said, whereas Tesla used to be so far in the lead that it was unfathomable it could ever be caught, Ford is now at the point where it “just” needs to grow its EV sales 5.7 times over in order to catch the leader. I know — that’s still really, really far away. But it’s something one could imagine happening over time … if Ford was growing its EV sales more notably. The Ford Mustang Mach-E increased its sales by 2,018 units year over year and the Ford E-Transit grew by 865 units, but the F-150 Lightning’s sales declined by 556 units year over year. Ford got closer to Tesla much more because of Tesla’s large drop in sales.

Anyway, after Tesla’s 43.2% share and Ford’s 7.6% share, Chevrolet’s 6.5% share of the US EV market was the only other share above 5%. BMW, as a smaller premium brand, does fairly well to score 4.6% market share, and then you’ve got mass-market builders Hyundai (4.3%), Honda (3.2%), Volkswagen (3.2%), and Kia (2.9%) before EV startup Rivian (2.9%, but a lower 2.9%) and luxury automaker Cadillac (2.7%). The rest, well, do they deserve mention at such low volumes?

I think most interesting there is how quickly Honda shot up from being a zero-EV-sales laggard to 6th in the ranking. It’s brand reputation and customer loyalty pushed it forward quickly, despite the Honda Prologue actually being a Chevy Blazer EV underneath (and with the Prologue even beating the Blazer EV).

Looking at auto groups or alliances together, Tesla remains in the same position, of course, but GM looks much more significant and dangerous (to Tesla’s #1 spot) after consolidating all of its brands and EV models. In fact, GM’s 10.8% share is exactly ¼ of Tesla’s 43.2% share. Could this competition get interesting one day? I don’t know. We’re a long way off from that, but at least its a discussion that could be had now. What GM needs, though, is to double the output of some of its more popular models (most notably, the 2024 CleanTechnica Car of the Year Chevy Equinox EV) and also roll out some more popular electric models. Then it could get interesting.

Notice that we’re talking about GM not Ford now, as Ford Motor Company’s got a narrower brand and EV model portfolio. Ford relies completely on … Ford for its EV sales. It’s a bit weird in a market where luxury vehicle brands have the highest proportion of their sales coming from EVs that Lincoln has been sitting on its hands, but this is where we are.

In fact Ford Motor Company isn’t even third, with Hyundai–Kia taking the last podium position. Hyundai and Kia get a lot of praise for their EVs, and they are doing “better than the rest,” but I have been disappointed with these automakers for years that they don’t push out their EV models more. They have potential, and we all know that it’s the ones with potential who can really let you down. It’s good to see Hyundai–Kia in 3rd, not 10th, but I think we could really see a lot more EV sales from Hyundai and Kia if they put a little more effort into it.

Volkswagen Group rounds out the top five, being the German version of GM with a boatload of brands to benefit from. It’s not doing horribly, easily beating a lot of other large automakers thanks to its wide and compelling lineup, but it could certainly be doing much better and is another company I was hoping to see a little more from. I’d love to see Volkswagen Group — like Ford Motor Co. and Hyundai–Kia — rise above 30,000 sales a quarter soon. Next quarter? Though, of course, they are now at the whims of a tariff-crazed lunatic who is more intent on firing people, deporting people, and raising living costs for people than actually doing something to help Americans. We’ll see what the rest of the year brings, but I guess I can’t say I’m hopeful.