Right when I thought I knew everything about electric cars, I came across new electric vehicle statistics that offered some surprises. In this article I will share nine electric vehicle statistics that I bet you don’t already know… But you should!
If you’re like me, you’ll learn some new facts that will give you a new perspective on where the EV industry is headed. At the very least, you’ll be able to quiz your friends with electric car trivia.
1. China Buys More EVs Than Any Other Country
Despite the feeling that the U.S. is driving the electric car market, China is leading the world in electric vehicle adoption. This is because their leader in 2014, Xi Jinping, declared that they would become an “automotive power” by becoming the epicenter for manufacturing electric cars.
This year China will sell over 6,000,000 electric cars. This is more than the rest of the world combined! They also have 1,000,000 chargers nationwide, hundreds of electric car companies, and over 300 EV models currently for sale. In comparison, the U.S. only has a handful of EV automakers and less than 50 electric car models.
Sure, China is a large country with the largest population in the world. However, even Europe has surpassed the U.S. in electric car sales—by nearly double. So the next time your “friends” say that the U.S. government is pushing electric cars on them, you can confidently say that; “We (the U.S.) are just trying to catch up to the rest of the world!”
2. The First Electric Car Was Built in 1832
Electric cars are not new to the automobile world. In fact one of the first horseless carriages was powered by electricity all the way back in 1832 by Robert Anderson—sixty years prior to the first gas-powered production car.
Due to the lack of efficient battery technology, electric cars never had a chance… until recently. The rise of cell phones created a massive demand for more powerful, compact, and affordable batteries. The new lithium-ion battery technology has allowed for the explosion of an entirely new category of electric passenger cars and trucks.
3. 40% of All US Electric Car Sales Are Tesla
It shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone that Teslas are by far the most popular and common electric car in the U.S. and have been since 2015. It goes to show that beating others to the market and gaining early adoption has its benefits.
Tesla was founded in 2009 to disrupt the automotive industry by giving the world an alternative to gas-powered cars that car owners actually want to drive.
To accomplish this difficult task, Tesla had to overcome some steep obstacles like a complete lack of infrastructure to charge electric cars and find cost-effective batteries to power the Tesla’s large electric motors.
Tesla did the impossible by building its own EV charger network and completely redesigning how cars are manufactured. In doing this, Tesla has forever changed the automotive industry, leaving the other auto manufacturers playing catch up.
While Tesla is in the lead today, other automotive manufacturers are spending billions of dollars just to take market share back from Tesla.
4. Political Affiliation Has Little to Do With Electric Cars
Many people believe that electric vehicle adoption and the clean energy movement is mainly for states that lean blue. However, the statistics show a different story. Of the states with the highest electric cars registered, some of the most conservative states are at the top of the list.
Of course, the liberal state of California has the greatest number of electric cars, accounting for 39% of all EVs nationwide. Yet, the red state of Florida has the second highest count, closely followed by Texas. In seventh place is Arizona. With nearly 200,000 electric cars registered between them, it proves that electric cars are not just for the tree hugging commonwealth anymore.
5. Electric Car Sales Grew Nearly 55% in 2022
Despite a short downturn in sales in 2020, electric car sales exploded in both 2021 and (so far) 2022. Second quarter vehicle registration showed that new EV sales this year are nearly 55% greater than 2021—and 2021 ended at a whopping 100% year-over-year increase.
Thus far in 2022, electric cars account for nearly 6% of all new, light-duty vehicle sales and there is little doubt that this trend isn’t going to stop anytime soon. Americans are eager to get away from paying high gas prices to fill their gas tank each week.
Automotive manufactures are also getting onboard by offering 83 electric car choices for 2022 and even more coming soon. While in the past few years the average sales price for an electric car has been almost $70,000, many 2023 EV models are starting well below $35,000.
6. Fastest Growing States With Electric Cars
As mentioned earlier, California, Florida, and Texas have more electric cars on the road compared to the rest of the 50 states. In spite of being at the top of the list, for the moment Florida and Texas have fallen off the list for the highest percentage of new EV car sales.
As you can see in the chart above, nearly one in five vehicles purchased in California are electric. In Colorado, where I live, buyers are choosing an electric car 10% of the time.
There is little wonder why some states rise to the top of this electric car adoption, most of the states on this list, including Colorado, offer incentives for either purchasing an EV or installing a Level 2 Charger for your home.
7. One-Third of All Charging Stations Are in California
The most impactful thing any state can do to advance the adoption of electric cars is to increase the number of EV charging stations throughout the state. California leads the nation with both electric car adoption and current electric car inventory.
This is supported by California’s extensive EV charger infrastructure. California currently has over 30,000 chargers within its borders. While this is a great start, keep in mind that if just 25% of vehicles in California run on electricity, California will need to add an additional 1,000,000 chargers!
Compare that to Wyoming’s measly 79 chargers. This statistic is shocking to me considering Wyoming has I-80, one of the country’s most important highways, running directly through it. I guess, if you’re going to take a trip through Wyoming in your electric car, you’d better plan accordingly!
8. Car Manufacturers Are Going Completely Electric
Auto manufacturers are jumping on the all-electric trend faster than pop-up headlights in the ‘80’s. Let’s just hope that electric cars aren’t just another fad like retractable headlights were back then.
“All-electric” includes manufacturing both plug-in electric hybrid (PHEV) and hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV), as well as battery electric vehicles (BEV). While not every manufacturer worldwide is committing to give up gasoline completely, the auto makers below are giving themselves a deadline to reduce pollution from gas-powered car emissions.
Manufacturer Deadlines to Reduce Pollution From Gas-powered Car Emission
| Manufacturer | Estimated Date |
|---|---|
| Hummer | 2020 |
| Jaguar | 2025 |
| Volkswagen | 2026 |
| Bentley | 2030 |
| Cadillac | 2030 |
| Lexus | 2030 |
| Mini Cooper | 2030 |
| Rolls Royce | 2030 |
| Audi | 2033 |
| Buick | 2035 |
| Chevrolet | 2035 |
| GMC | 2035 |
| Mercedes | 2035 |
| Honda | 2040 |
| Volvo | 2040 |
| Ford | 2050 |
| Toyota | 2050 |
| Hyundai/Kia | 25% by 2029 |
| Mazda | 25% by 2030 |
| Chrysler/Jeep | 40% by 2028 |
9. Electric Cars Account for Less than 1% of All Vehicles
Even though electric car sales are soaring, there are more EVs than ever to choose from, and many manufacturers are committing to go completely electric in the next decade, electric vehicles still only account for less than 1% of all cars registered in the U.S. today.
There are currently 2.6 million electric vehicles throughout the U.S. at this time. At the same time, there are more than 281 million “light duty” gas-powered vehicles in operation in the United States and this doesn’t include large trucks and buses.
At the current rate, it will take decades before electric cars will surpass gas-powered as the dominant vehicle on the roads.
Final Thoughts
It’s easy to see that now is an exciting time in the automotive world. Electric cars are to the automotive world, what the iPhone was to communication. The speed of evolution and adaptation is like nothing before for auto manufacturers.
Keeping on top of electric vehicle statistics keeps our EV eyes on the prize and our heads out of the clouds. Numbers never lie and while things are changing fast, the EV revolution is just getting started.
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