EV sales continue to rise

Despite recent economic woes and soaring inflation across nearly all goods and services, the trend of buyers converting to electric vehicles― battery or hybrid― hasn’t slowed down a bit in the first half of this year. In fact, all notable metrics point to the exact opposite: BEV and PHEV purchases and registrations are up, both in the U.S. and across the world.

Global plug-in registrations rose 60% from August 2021 to August 2022, comprising a new-high of 15% of the overall global market share (11% market share for BEVs only). Specific countries outside of the U.S. saw even more impressive gains in the ZEV sector: France boasted a 21.5% increase in plug-in market share, a 21.5% gain YoY, with BEVs growing 32.4% YoY. With an overall auto market growth of 5.5%, a 32.4% BEV increase shows just how preferable electric vehicles are becoming the world over. The overall European car market showed similar, albeit slightly less exciting, results as France: with a measly 3% increase in the overall auto market YoY, BEVs comprised 21% market share in the month of August and achieved a 12% growth rate from July to August. For the European market in totality, BEVs alone make up 12% of the market share. Additionally, despite the lingering need for practical hybrids, particularly in the U.S. and China, global and European trends are decidedly favoring BEVs over PHEVs, with BEV market share increasing 66% YoY while PHEVs only saw a 47% increase YoY. Excluding China from global statistics, PHEVs would actually show a decrease of 9.9% YoY.

Despite this impressive growth amidst economic turmoil, industry experts expect to see even faster growth in the near future. J.D. Power’s Vice President of Data and Analytics stated that “…once the industry gets past the supply chain disruptions, another challenge― the EV race― is about to emerge and is likely to shake up the brand loyalty status quo,” positing an expectation that not only will consumers begin to purchase EVs in higher volumes, but some may even be switching from their long-favored auto brands purely due to the desire to go electric. With 83 ZEV models now for sale in the U.S., 40 of which are BEVs and 40 of which are PHEVs (the remaining three models are fuel cell vehicles, which are not plug-in electric), there’s now a plethora of consumer choices varying in type, price, and range.

                Naysayers of electrification of the light-duty fleet often point to higher sticker prices as a reason that mass-adoption isn’t fiscally attainable yet, often ignoring the reduced fuel and maintenance costs zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) have over their lifetime when compared to internal combustion engines (ICEVs). Given the record-high prices at the pump over the last few months, justifying that higher price tag has become a lot easier― and the data shows as much. Despite EV prices in the U.S. rising to an average of $65,000, a YoY increase of more than $11,600 compared to the average ICEV price of $47,000 with a YoY increase of $5,400, consumers are obviously doing the math and realizing that a higher sticker price is worth no longer being at the mercy of gasoline price hikes. While the U.S. has lagged behind Europe and China in ZEV adoption, this gap is rapidly closing. Specifically, California has the nation’s leader is charging full-steam ahead, with ZEV sales now making up 16.48% of all light-duty sales in Q1 and Q2 of 2022 in the state, which is above the European market share by nearly 5%. Electric vehicles won’t be going anywhere anytime soon― no fire, price hike, or downturned economy has been capable of slowing the adoption rate yet.