While the second quarter was a good one for the entire U.S. auto industry, it was a blockbuster period for battery-electric-vehicle sales.
Americans bought a record 295,255 battery-electric vehicles during the period, according to Cox Automotive’s second-quarter electric-vehicle summary. That marks a roughly 14% increase from the 2023 first quarter.
Year over year, U.S. EV sales jumped about 50% from 196,788 units in the 2022 second quarter.
Lower prices, new tax incentives from the federal government, and more EV models helped drive sales. Eleven models sold more than 5,000 units in the second quarter, up from six models in the year-ago period. Excluding
Tesla
vehicles, seven models sold more than 5,000 units during the quarter, up from two models a year ago. Tesla’s (ticker: TSLA) Models S, 3, X, and Y all sold more than 5,000 models in both the 2022 and 2023 second quarters.
The Tesla Model Y still dominates, with 36% of the U.S. EV market. Tesla sold 105,158 Model Y units, up 76% year over year.
The Model 3 is the second most popular EV, with 57,837 units sold in the quarter. Model 3 sales grew more slowly than the market year over year, up only 6%.
Elon Musk’s company
did lose a tiny bit of ground to competitors, but no one has emerged as a significant number-two player yet. Tesla’s overall U.S. EV market share slipped to 59% in the second quarter from 62% in the first three months of the year, according to the Cox Automotive report. Tesla’s sales expanded 8% quarter over quarter, below the market’s 14% rate.
Tesla did, however, pick up share against the number two and three players,
Ford Motor
(F) and
General Motors
(GM). Ford and GM’s combined market share in the second quarter was about 10%, down from about 12% in the 2023 first quarter.
The top non-Tesla vehicle, and in third place overall, was the Chevy Bolt with 13,959 units sold. The
Ford
Mustang Mach E was next for cars with about 8,600 units sold.
Ford EV sales have slowed as the company ran into some battery problems with the F-150 Lightning pickup in the first quarter and took some plant downtime. As a result, the Rivian R1T is the best-selling electric truck in the U.S. for the second consecutive quarter.
Rivian Automotive
(RIVN) sold 10,239 pickups in the second quarter. Ford sold 4,466 Lightnings. The Lightning had edged out the R1T in the 2022 fourth quarter.
Overall EV penetration of new car sales held steady from the previous quarter at about 8%, as overall U.S. car sales also increased 14% during the quarter, according to industry reports and Benchmark Research.
Growing sales is one reason U.S. car stocks have been strong lately. Shares of GM and Ford are up 16% and 20% over the past three months, respectively. Tesla and Rivian shares have gained 51% and 88% over the past three months, respectively.
The
S&P
500 and
Dow Jones Industrial Average
are up about 9% and 1%, respectively, over the same span.
Write to Al Root at [email protected]
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