EV Sales Keep Growing In the US, Represent 20% of Global Car Sales and Half in China (autoweek.com) 294
"Despite many obstacles — and what you may read elsewhere — electric-vehicle sales continue to grow at a healthy pace in the U.S. market," Cox Automotive reported this week. "Roughly 7.5% of total new-vehicle sales in the first quarter were electric vehicles, an increase from 7% a year earlier."
An anonymous reader shared this analysis from Autoweek: "Despite a cloud of uncertainty around future EV interest and potential economic headwinds hanging over the automotive industry, consumer demand for electric vehicles has remained stable," according to the J.D. Power 2025 US Electric Vehicle Consideration Study released yesterday. Specifically, the study showed that 24% of vehicle shoppers in the U.S. say they are "very likely" to consider purchasing an EV and 35% say they are "somewhat likely," both of which figures remain unchanged from a year ago...
Globally the numbers are even more pro-EV. Electric car sales exceeded 17 million globally in 2024, reaching a sales share of more than 20%, according to a report issued this week by the International Energy Agency. "Just the additional 3.5 million electric cars sold in 2024 compared with the previous year is more than the total number of electric cars sold worldwide in 2020," the IEA said. China, which has mandated increases in EV sales, is the leader in getting electric vehicles on the road, with electric cars accounting for almost half of all Chinese car sales in 2024, the IEA said. "The over 11 million electric cars sold in China last year were more than global sales just 2 years earlier. As a result of continued strong growth, 1 in 10 cars on Chinese roads is now electric."
Interesting figures on U.S. EV sales from the article:
An anonymous reader shared this analysis from Autoweek: "Despite a cloud of uncertainty around future EV interest and potential economic headwinds hanging over the automotive industry, consumer demand for electric vehicles has remained stable," according to the J.D. Power 2025 US Electric Vehicle Consideration Study released yesterday. Specifically, the study showed that 24% of vehicle shoppers in the U.S. say they are "very likely" to consider purchasing an EV and 35% say they are "somewhat likely," both of which figures remain unchanged from a year ago...
Globally the numbers are even more pro-EV. Electric car sales exceeded 17 million globally in 2024, reaching a sales share of more than 20%, according to a report issued this week by the International Energy Agency. "Just the additional 3.5 million electric cars sold in 2024 compared with the previous year is more than the total number of electric cars sold worldwide in 2020," the IEA said. China, which has mandated increases in EV sales, is the leader in getting electric vehicles on the road, with electric cars accounting for almost half of all Chinese car sales in 2024, the IEA said. "The over 11 million electric cars sold in China last year were more than global sales just 2 years earlier. As a result of continued strong growth, 1 in 10 cars on Chinese roads is now electric."
Interesting figures on U.S. EV sales from the article:
- 2024 EV sales rose 7.3% from 2023, according to Cox Automotive data.
- "Last year American consumers purchased 1.3 million electric vehicles, which was a new record, according to data from KBB.
- "Sales have never stopped growing, and the percentage of new cars sold powered purely by gasoline continues to slip.
Technoluddites. (Score:5, Funny)
It's weird to see how much of /. has turned into a bunch of reactionary technoluddites. Electricity an exotic semiconductors are the future for cars too.
Well if I can't move my entire house cross country on less than 24 hour's notice, without stopping for a pee break on my way from Humptulips to Fluffly Landings, then an EV is nothing buy some urbanists toy runabout. This is why I drive a semi tractor from my suburban home to work, walmart and back.
Re:Technoluddites. (Score:5, Insightful)
Thats a chicken and egg problem...
If there were more EVs on the roads, then more chargers would be built for them. This means more availability and less waiting for one to become free.
Also since being able to charge at home is a significant use case for an EV, most people who currently own them will be those who have a location to park and charge.
However a lot of EV proponents are trying to force them on everyone, not just the use cases where it makes sense.
For people who commute a few miles to work every day, and have somewhere to charge cheaply either at home or work the only downside is the up front purchase cost. In this use case you don't even need 5 minutes to charge, the charging happens while you work or sleep.
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For people who commute a few miles to work every day, and have somewhere to charge cheaply either at home or work the only downside is the up front purchase cost.
If you are buying new, and are not in countries like the USA, you can often buy a BEV for about the same price as an ICEV. For example here in New Zealand a new BYD Dolphin and a new Toyota Corolla are the same price. There are no EV subsidies here anymore.
https://www.bydauto.co.nz/vehicles/dolphin
https://www.toyota.co.nz/new-car/corolla/COROLLA-ZXASX-NM1/?skuCode=COROLLA-ZXASX-NM1-3U9-20
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However a lot of EV proponents are trying to force them on everyone
Problem is ICE users are forcing their fumes and brake dust on everyone. Painting it as only EV proponents who are "forcing" something is a massive status quo bias.
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"Problem is ICE users are forcing their fumes and brake dust on everyone".
Electric vehicles don't have brakes? That's exciting news.
Re:Technoluddites. (Score:5, Interesting)
Electric vehicles don't have brakes?
They mostly get by on regen braking which greatly reduces the amount of brake dust. And drum brakes (which don't leak dust) are making a comeback since they have some significant advantages for EVs.
Re: Technoluddites. (Score:2)
You are wrong about drum brakes. They shed just as much dust. The drums are not sealed, they are like a bowl. I've seen the dust and cleaned it up personally.
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I have also worked on drum brakes and mostly agree with your observation. The "however" is that Continental has designed a sealed drum brake [continental.com]. Granted this design specifically mentions the electronic parking brake application, it is used for rear-axle braking in EVs because about 80% of the braking power is via regenerative braking. Coupled with about 30% of the braking power being supplied by the rear axle, the design works for this application.
Continental is working on a front-axle drum brake [continental.com] applicat
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Re:Technoluddites. (Score:5, Informative)
Charging stations are popping up everywhere, and in places I wouldn't have expected.
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No, you won't get the same range as a 1990 Audi 100 TDI, which got more than 1500 km on a single refuel. But within a drive of 400 km, you should get a break of 10 mins anyw
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The problem is also solved by local councils. My one is quite on the ball and has set up deals with several different EV charge suppliers, so my road has multiple lamp post chargers. I'm not entirely a fan of the way it's done, but it does work, and my road has quite a number of EV and PHEV owners, despite having no off street parking.
Re: Yes, but... (Score:2)
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1. I don’t know which European country you live in, but to live somewhere with only one on-street charger in your local area is now quite hard to do across most of the continent.
2. Which EV equivalent of an ICE car weighs 700kg more? EVs are on average somewhat heavier like for like, but not always (eg Peugeot 208 1.2 PureTech Allure 5dr has a GVW of 1546kg; e208 is 1530kg) and the biggest factor is the size of the car. A big SUV will weigh lots more than a supermini
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1. I live in the UK and have been to France and Spain many, many times. UK small towns have a population of between 5 and 20k people. There are 748 of them. Almost all of them have multiple public chargers available. For example, Market Weighton is a small town in Yorkshire. It’s got four public chargers. https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?ur... [ons.gov.uk]
The UK now has just under 80,000 public chargersand about 1 *million* private chargers, meaning far fewer cars seeking to charge publicly than would be seeking to use
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I had another little play around on ZapMap just now. It’s getting to be really *really* hard to find a hamlet in the UK that’s more than 5 miles from a public charger. You have to go to places like Talladale, a tiny village of fewer than 300 people in the Scottish Highlands, and even then, the nearest charger is in Charlestown, which is less than 9 miles away. Same distance as to the nearest petrol station. And obviously a village like Talladale is rural enough that practically every house has o
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Ironic. Have you compared the kerbweights of the EV variants of current ICE cars? Anything from 200 to 700 kg more!
BMW X3 curb weight: 4,535 lb.
Tesla Model Y curb weight: 4,404 lb.
You were saying?
Re: Technoluddites. (Score:2)
Re: Technoluddites. (Score:2)
Re: Technoluddites. (Score:2)
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"Perhaps stop at an EV charge station?"
And where would that be? There's one within a mile radius. Am I supposed to take an hour out of my day to go and do that where right now with my ICE car I can go and fill it up and literally be home in 10 mins or less?
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Perhaps stop at an EV charge station?
DCFC can be more expensive than gas on a cost-per-mile basis, and whether or not the regular trip to the charger ends up being a pain in the ass is highly location dependent. Near me, there's some Tesla Superchargers right near a Target and it's rather obvious some of the nearby apartment dwellers are getting their shopping done while they juice up their car. It is, however, a bit of a slog across the parking lot from the chargers to the store, and quite often Florida's weather isn't entirely cooperative.
Good. (Score:5, Insightful)
EVs are superior in just about every metric. The sooner ICEs behind quaint vintage oddities, the better. We're late enough as it is with the fossil fuel turn-around.
L00ny or not, you have to give Elon Musk credit for being a key figure in making this happen.
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You mean Elmo is a key figure in firing scientists in the Nat. Gov. and gutting the Fed. sci. budget so that the U.S. will lose its lead in science. I give Elmo part of the blame for nothing, the rest of the blame goes to Proj. 2025 and la Presidenta. And besides, Elmo is so intelligent he thought letting his inner right-wingnut little girl out would not cause his little car company to tank. And it is a very little company in terms of cars shipped.
Re:Good. (Score:5, Insightful)
Top speed. 230 km/h is more than i need
Refueling time: yes. i spend 5 seconds plugging in when i come home. the EVSE is right by my front door. I spend less time refueling my ev than stopping at gas stations.
Range: I use 18-20% of my battery every day, i use 70% to visit my family in the other side of the country. they have a EVSE, I use my RFID tag to pay at their house. On time a year when i Travel through EU i do have to stop and charge but that is a small inconvenience to all the upsides
kerbweight: I dont care, it doesnt matter.
Towing weight: I dont care i dont need it.
Good in the cold: it is fantastic. it is warm instantly, it can de-ice itself. the added weight and 4 wheel drive makes it excellent in the snow.
And my daily commute is just bliss in a comfortable smooth ride in silence.
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"Top speed. 230 km/h is more than i need"
And how many have a top speed that high?
"Refueling time: yes. i spend 5 seconds plugging in when i come home."
And for the majority of the world who live in small houses or flats and don't have a nice long drive in which to park a car to charge or a parking space with a charger?
"kerbweight: I dont care, it doesnt matter."
It matters to the road , crash safety and tyre particulate production.
"Towing weight: I dont care i dont need it."
Oh well, if YOU don't need it then
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"Top speed. 230 km/h is more than i need"
And how many have a top speed that high?
Yea, bit sad, only 230km/h. I'm told my BEV has a top speed of 268km/h but I can't prove that as people, particularly police, tend to take a dim view of things when you drive that fast.
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"The Majourity of the world: can charge at home or at work."
Really? You ever been to india or asia or even most european cities? I doubt you've been more than a few miles from where you were born.
Re: Good. (Score:2)
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Re: Good. (Score:2)
Re: Good. (Score:2)
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EVs are commonplace here in Sweden and in our neighbour Norway, Many of these are Teslas. You can see them everywhere.
We get proper winters. We get snow .. that thaws .. and then freezes into ice, over and over. We also get under-chilled rain that create invisible ice on the roads. etc. Change between summer and winter tyres are practically mandatory twice a year.
Studded winter tyres throw up a not insignificant amount of particulate matter: and therefore studded tyres banned from many inner-city streets fo
Re: Good. (Score:2)
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For those temperatures, you need to go to Finland
But obviously, most Canadians don’t experience them either. Only about 7% live in cities like Edmonton and Winnipeg, which get that cold. It’s been a decade since Montreal was that cold, for example.
Re: Good. (Score:2)
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I did a bit of checking, and Montreal last reached -25 in 2015, during the cold weather event of that year.
“ Montreal last experienced temperatures of -25C or lower during the February 2015 cold wave, which was notably severe. During this period, the city endured its coldest February on record, with an average temperature of -15.0C. This cold snap was part of a broader regional event affecting much of Quebec and Ontario.
Since then, Montreal has not recorded temperatures as low as -25C. The lowest temp
Re: Good. (Score:2)
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You will get no argument from me on that point. EVs definitely lose at least 30% way before they get to -17C — for me you already see that range drop off by about -5C. It’s just that my max winter range is already long enough for my needs. I can drive 200 miles in the winter without stopping, and that’s more than enough for me, and not nearly enough for you
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-25C is -13F. That's about the median of the annual extreme here in northern Illinois, US. So, half the years it gets colder than that at least once. And it has been as cold as -27F (-32.8C).
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For towing, Ageing Wheels on YouTube just did a video about the EV truck be bought specifically to tow other cars. It looks good, massive battery, suits him.
Re: Good. (Score:2)
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In Europe and China. I don't know why nobody seems to sell one in the US as they make a lot of sense. That guy tows a flatbed with the car on it.
Re: Good. (Score:2)
Re: Good. (Score:2)
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we have a tendency to buy cars that fulfill our extreme needs, not our day-to-day needs.
Speak for yourself, that sounds like the kind of crazy justification that leads to buying stupidly large vehicles that you often see in the USA. Cars are big investment so I buy the right car for my normal needs. I have never regretted it and wished I brought something more extreme.
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Well, the title of the article is about EV sales in the US and plenty of Americans need a vehicle just to get around our miserably designed suburban sprawl. The main sticking point I'll acknowledge is that most apartments generally don't have any sort of charging available. It's certainly an aspect of infrastructure that needs to be addressed.
Re: Good. (Score:2)
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Top speed?
A high top speed is an important spec only on racetracks and when your goal is impressing 10-year-olds. Back in reality where most drivers aren't trying to get their license revoked for reckless driving, most of us only tend to care about how well a car accelerates to the speed traffic is flowing at, and EVs do that quite well.
Refueling time?
I plug in at home. In all likelihood, my total time spent dealing with "refueling" my vehicle has gone down, even with those 30 minute stops during the infrequent times I take longe
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"Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying EVs fit every use case"
Unfortunately a lot of EV evangelists think they DO fit every use case and when someone points out the downsides they just get modded down as a troll or IRL ignored or called a reactionary. This sort of fundamentalist approach is not going to win over many people.
Re: Good. (Score:2)
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It’s because you say “to me” instead of “for me”, ie you absolutely refuse to acknowledge that RVs can be a really poor fit for you, and yet work really well for some people.
Re: Good. (Score:2)
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It just gets a bit sterile when we endlessly go round the houses of you pointing out they don’t have enough range for you and other people say “we can charge at home, it’s great” etc
Re: Good. (Score:2)
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I’ll stop talking about the perks of EVs when you stop talking about the concerns, how about that?
And home charging is but one perk among a whole host of perks, and for me the concerns you have have never been a problem at all. Not range, not any supposed inconvenience of charging, not having to install a charger at home, nor anything else. It’s been a joy from the outset, and got better every year of the last decade as the tech and infrastructure have improved.
Re: Good. (Score:2)
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I do! The number of people EVs suit grows step by step, as prices come down, infrastructure improves, and range increases. I don’t think they work for everyone, but I do think they already work for most of the driver population of most developed countries, because most drivers in most developed countries live in urban or suburban settings in milder climates than Canada and a majority have off-street parking too. That’s all most drivers need for an EV to work for them: the ability to charge where
Re: Good. (Score:2)
Re: Good. (Score:2)
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Here’s how I measure the rate of improvement:
1. Range. My first Zoe in 2015 had a range of 90 miles in the summer(!); my second in 2018 did 180 miles; my third in 2020 did 230. The Zoe was discontinued before my finance deal came to an end, and so I switched to a Mercedes EQA with a summer range of 330 miles. (The original Tesla Model S had a range of just over 200 miles, so comparable with my second Zoe. So affordable superminis had caught up with the original Tesla Model S range by 2018, ie about si
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Some EV evangelists are attempting to break down the mental barriers of people who believe they need some big gas guzzlin' urban assault vehicle, but in reality actually don't. You certainly see a lot of them on the road in the US: Big shiny pickup trucks that have never seen a dirt road or a bed full of lumber, and SUVs with a single occupant just doing their daily stuck-in-rush-hour commute.
Generally, the more you get out into rural areas though, the more you'll see people actually utilizing the capabil
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Top speed? Rarely.
If you can find a single car on sale in the USA that doesn't meet your top speed requirements then get the fuck off the road. The public roads are not your personal racetrack.
Refueling time? Nope.
What's refueling time? Those of us who have never stopped to refuel our EVs are dying to know.
Range? Nope.
The range in my EV in the morning is far more than an empty ICE car. The range is the range anew every day. Every couple of days my ICE car used to not make it to a destination without me stopping and refilling it. What a crazy time that was.
The US is the *least* interesting EV market (Score:5, Insightful)
I hate to break this to American readers, but the US market is more disconnected than all other developed world markets, and many developing world markets too. It mainly has different OEMs, wildly different policies coming down the road, much larger vehicles on average, worse charger infrastructure, lags in EV market share penetration, and radically different availability of models. It just is so disconnected from the rest of the global market.
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100%. I live in SE Asia where the car market and all the associated infrastructure has been turned upside down by EVs in just the past 4 or 5 years. It's such a shame that Americans are being denied the opportunity to purchase such a wide variety of EVs as we have here, worse yet, they probably don't even have a clue how good these vehicles actually are. Teslas are fine, but they are not by any means the best you can buy these days. Go pull up some random Youtube EV reviews from Europe or Australia or Asia
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Yup. It’s the same with small cars. No Inster, no Renault 5, no Ami, etc in the US.
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Judging by the number of nearly identical looking Teslas I regularly see on the road, I think the US market just does exactly the same thing we do with social media companies, fast food restaurants and even Walmart: We pick a handful of brands to support, and the rest can just go to hell. Americans collectively hate too much choice.
Re:The US is the *least* interesting EV market (Score:5, Interesting)
The really interesting one is China. It disproves so many of the assumptions about EVs. Extremes of hot and cold climate, affordability of the transition to net zero, the size of the country and long distances that need to be covered, commercial vehicle use like taxis, buses, and construction equipment...
Between them and Norway it seems like every myth has been busted.
Re: The US is the *least* interesting EV market (Score:3)
ICE diehards miss the point (Score:5, Insightful)
Need to tow massive loads ? Fine, roll coal.
But most people don't have or care about those use cases or find the obvious advantages of EVs far outweigh their drawbacks in those areas.
The world is moving on.
And fuck, can these things accelerate.
Re: ICE diehards miss the point (Score:2)
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The worry is that governments are starting to talk about forcing people to use them whether they work for you or not.
Have you read the Republicans' latest budget bill? The EV credit is getting the axe at the end of this year, so not only is no one forcing you to buy an EV in the US, you won't get some of your tax money back towards the purchase anymore, either.
Now, you might be worried that as the rest of the world moves on there'll be less ICE options available, but I don't see the domestic manufacturers giving up on ICE anytime soon. Considering that Japan even still has a significant number of homes relying on kerose
Re: ICE diehards miss the point (Score:2)
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You have years and years before you won’t be able to buy an ICE car that meets your needs in Canada. And EV tech will advance during those years.
Re: ICE diehards miss the point (Score:2)
Re: ICE diehards miss the point (Score:4, Insightful)
I think “years and years” is a reasonable description of 10 years. And of course, that means it’s actually more like 20 years till you are unable to drive an ICE vehicle (assuming a new ICE car you buy in 2035 lasts till 2045).
Another UK uptick, for sure (Score:4, Informative)
In the ten years I’ve had a car (always an EV), I’ve kept a rough and flakey tab on EV adoption locally (NW London) by counting the number of EVs I spot on the days I drop my daughter at school. It started with five to ten, rising over the years, and for a while in 2023/2024 it was stuck about 60 to 70. Now it’s ticked up to 90ish, and there’s a substantial increase in the variety of EVs too: no longer just Teslas, i3s and Zoes; now, lots of Mercedes EQs, a fair number of Polestars and Volvos, lots of Taycans and the odd Macan, tons of Kias and Hyundais, and the first few BYDs too. Every so often, there’s something unusual — a Cyberster, my first spot of a Renault 5 the other day, a few id.Buzzes. I expect we’ll see more growth throughout this year, because the value and variety is getting better
Anemic growth at best (Score:2)
The numbers in this article should not be misrepresented - this is more evidence of a prolonged, continuing plateauing of EV adoption in the US. You can make an argument that any adoption gains are positive, but these are not the revolutionary numbers needed to overtake ICE vehicles in the next two decades. It is even more depressing if you do not include hybrid vehicles in your definition of EV.
I really think this new battery tech from China, when ready for production, will be the best opportunity for that
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I'd buy one for $5K or so. Beyond that? Probably not.
For awhile you could actually get a used Nissan Leaf with a shot battery for around that or a little bit less. You might want to add a qualifier that the vehicle still has to have a usable amount of range.
Re: $5000 (Score:5, Funny)
You rented a shitty argument, why not buy a shitty car?
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Re: $5000 (Score:2)
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Re: $5000 (Score:4, Informative)
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In practice, we’re seeing eight to ten year old cars with 90%+ of their original range. All that matters is to buy a car with enough range for you. For some people, that can be just 30 miles, if they’re buying a daily city commuter car; others will not be happy with less than 600 miles (and thus no current EV works for them).
Re: $5000 (Score:2)
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As we’ve noted many times before, it’s gonna be at least another 10 years before you can get an EV that will do what you want it to. You want 500+ miles of winter range, right?
Re: $5000 (Score:2)
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So if it did 500 miles in the winter and the same in the summer, that’d be fine, but if it did 500 miles in the winter and 1000 in the summer, it wouldn’t?!
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After all an EV does NOT waste 2/3 of its energy as heat, like a gas guzzler does.
So you can choose between loosing that energy 100% of the year or only when it is cold.
Re: $5000 (Score:2)
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I know someone with a 17 year old Camry she bought for around that price and her range is 95% of what it was brand new.
I actually regularly see someone with one of those beater Nissan Leafs parked at the free ChargePoint chargers near Target. It probably does have shit for remaining range, but I'd bet it's still more reliable than a 17-year-old Camry. I used to own an '02 Camry that I'd bought new and kept for about 14 years, and towards the end it certainly did start having the kind of problems you'd expect a 14-year-old ICE car to have.
It really does come down to the desired use case. If someone has a really short comm
Re: $5000 (Score:2)
Re: $5000 (Score:2)
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See the forest fires in Minn. and the persistent drought in the American SW. Americans are willing to put their money where their sense is, unlike turtles like you.