I used to regularly post updates on the US EV market, but stopped in 2019 when my source (Inside EVs) stopped publishing the data because several carmakers started being coy about their EV sales (I wonder why?)
However, I've found a new source, Atlas EV Hub, and so I've been able to update my charts.
This chart is from Atlas EV Hub, but the data are not seasonally adjusted. The data include plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) and battery electric vehicles (EVs).
The chart below shows the original (= not seasonally adjusted), seasonally adjusted, and smoothed data for EVs and PHEVs combined, drawn on a log scale.
Sales have clearly slowed. A big chunk of the problem has been the turmoil at Tesla. Elon Musk has taken his eye off Tesla to focus on his vanity project Twitter (X) and obsessive dotty right-wing memes, and this has happened at a time when the overall US auto market has been slowing, and China has been struggling to get economic growth out of the doldrums. In the last couple of weeks, he's sacked all the staff working on the Tesla supercharger network, only to say last night that he's going to spend $500 million building it up again! The people who initially supported Tesla because they wanted to do something about the climate and pollution have been repelled by Musk's lurch to the Right. But perhaps, as Musk says, Tesla is now an AI company, in which case he's prolly stopped caring about EV sales. Bad news for the planet.
Chinese carmakers can't fill the gap, because the US has a 25% tariff on Chinese EVs. Since the Biden Administration plans to quadruple this, EV sales in the US are likely to continue to wobble, while consumers wait to see what happens. The US's attempt to gain ground in EVs with higher tariffs will no doubt push up EV prices, even after the generous subsidies. The subsidies won't be available for EVs with Chinese batteries, so CATL's dramatic halving of li-ion battery pack prices (to ~$56/kWh) this year, and its introduction of hugely improved sodium-ion batteries at $40/kWh, won't benefit US consumers.
US EV sales are likely to stagnate over the next couple of years, while we wait for US EV and battery makers get their act together.
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