US Car Market Shrunk In 2022 But EV Sales Went Up By Two Thirds

Even though fewer cars were bought in the United States in 2022 compared to the year before, marking a decline for the first time in over a decade, more of these vehicles were electric. US passenger vehicles fell in 2022, but the number of EVs went up by a remarkable 65 percent, an increase of almost two thirds compared to 2021.

EVs accounted for 5.8 percent of all new cars sold in the US, an increase from 3.1 percent the year before.

Tesla lost ground last year, with a market share that dropped from 72 percent in 2021 to 65 percent in 2022. It’s still the biggest player, but this drop does show that competitors’ ever more compelling models are affecting its dominance of the US EV segment.

Manufacturers like Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Ford, Cadillac, Hyundai, Kia, Genesis, Nissan and other major names launched bespoke EVs in 2022 and they all have their draws.

As per data from Motor Intelligence, in second place for market share after Tesla last year was Ford, with a 7.6 percent share, followed by Hyundai and Kia combined with 7.1 percent. Rivian was considerably lower down in the standings, but it still got a 2.6 percent share of the market, which is an achievement for a new automaker building its first ever vehicles.

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And while vehicles from newcomers like Lucid and Rivian didn’t account for too many of the over 800,000 EVs sold in the States over the last 12 months, the fruits of their 2022 production ramp-ups should be visible this year. Rivian delivered a still pretty impressive 20,332 vehicles (24,337 produced), while Lucid delivered 4,369 Air sedans (although it does say it built 7,180 units in total, exceeding expectations).

Projections say the number of electric vehicles sold in the US will surpass the 1-million mark in 2023. And keep in mind this will be sales of mostly expensive vehicles as the selection of affordable EVs won’t dramatically increase this year.

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The average price of an EV sold in the US last year was $61,448, a 5.5 percent decrease compared to 2021. And this average price went down even though Tesla (the best-selling manufacturer) made all its models more expensive in 2022, only for it to apply massive price cuts in January - this seems to really be having an effect as demand for Teslas has visibly gone up.

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