California Electric Vehicle Sales Rose to 22% Share in 2024, Dominated by (a Declining) Tesla

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California dominates the US electrical car scene. It has about 5 instances extra electrical automobiles on its roads than some other state, and it’s additionally the #1 state within the nation when it comes to electrical automobiles per capita. California accounted for 31.1% of US EV (ZEV) gross sales in 2024. By itself, it could have been the second largest electrical car market on the earth! (Simply barely forward of the UK and Germanyin addition to France and others.) So, what’s taking place in California is broadly vital for the world EV market.

Sadly, EV market share in California simply barely elevated in 2024, from 21.7% to 22%. Nonetheless, it’s a little sophisticated, so let’s get into the small print. For one, additionally word that total auto gross sales have been down barely (by 0.3%), whereas EV gross sales went up barely (by 1.2%).

The dominant model for EV gross sales in California is Tesla, much more so than throughout the US broadly. Tesla accounted for 52.5% of EV gross sales within the Golden State final 12 months. Nonetheless …

That’s down from 60.1% in 2023, and the amount of gross sales declined from 230,010 to 203,221. So, though the general EV market grew just a little bit, Tesla’s gross sales have been down significantly.

Earlier than moving into extra particulars, listed below are these two charts once more with Tesla excluded, simply in case you need to extra simply evaluate different manufacturers:

Truly, that chart proper above may be very helpful for making a key level. Excluding Tesla, 8 of the highest 10 EV sellers noticed their gross sales enhance in 2024 in comparison with 2023. Solely Chevrolet had a gross sales lower. It’s mainly these fashions and half a dozen others which have seen vital gross sales progress that has made up for Tesla’s gross sales decline, a bit extra.

The 2 questions for the California EV market going ahead are: 1) how a lot will these different manufacturers develop their EV presence and assist with total market progress within the months and years to return, and a couple of) how a lot will Tesla gross sales proceed to say no or, probably, rebound and develop once more?

In the intervening time, although, Tesla continues to be the massive canine within the California EV market, and it’s nonetheless the second largest auto model within the state (barely).

The development on the high isn’t tremendous fairly, although. #1 Toyota’s gross sales elevated 12 months over 12 months (4.4%, or by about 12,000 unites), #3 Honda’s gross sales elevated 12 months over 12 months (11.5%, or by about 20,000 models), and #2 Tesla’s gross sales declined 12 months over 12 months (-11.6%, or by about 27,000 models).

In 2023, the Tesla Model Y was the best selling vehicle in the state and the Tesla Mannequin 3 was the second finest promoting car there. Nonetheless, as you possibly can see above, though the Mannequin Y was nonetheless #1, the Mannequin 3 dropped to #4. And that is after an enormous mannequin refresh! The mannequin noticed an enormous drop, from round 83,000 Mannequin 3 gross sales in 2023 to about 53,000 in 2022.

Trying solely at SUV and truck gross sales, the Tesla Mannequin Y nonetheless had virtually double the gross sales of the #2 Toyota RAV4. That’s unquestionably a shocking achievement, particularly at this stage of the mannequin’s lifecycle. The opposite good EV information from this rating is that the Hyundai IONIQ 5 bought into the … high 12. Sure, I needed to prolong the rating just a little bit to get this glimpse of one other EV.

Within the rating of high promoting automobiles (sedans), the Mannequin 3 dropped to second place, narrowly being handed up by the Toyota Camry. Will the Camry sit on high of this rating for years but once more, or can the Mannequin 3 claw again the gold medal? Can some other electrical automobiles lastly climb onto the checklist as properly?

Narrowing all the way down to their area of interest classes, the Mannequin Y clearly demolishes the competitors within the “luxury compact SUV” class, and the Mannequin 3 crushes the competitors within the “near luxury cars” market. The good factor is now we have one other electrical mannequin on this latter class as properly, the BMW i4. Can it climb into second place in 2025? Will some other EV fashions be a part of?