EVs Made in the U.S. Are Dominating the Market

Photo: Justin Sullivan (Getty Images)

A new report shows that electric vehicles built in U.S. factories by far and away lead the domestic EV market, and it doesn’t seem like that trend is going to be coming to a stop anytime soon. According to Automotive News, new vehicle registration data from Experian shows that U.S.-made EVs account for about 75 percent of new electric vehicles in the first 11 months of 2022.

On top of that, U.S.-based automakers were also responsible for almost all local production, according to the outlet. The biggest exception was Nissan. Its Leaf, which is built in Tennessee, held 1.7 percent of the U.S. EV market share.

Tesla (which just dethroned BMW as the luxury sales king), General Motors and EV startups like Rivian are in the proverbial driver’s seat for this manufacturing trend. The Inflation Reduction Act that was signed into law in 2022 also has something to do with it. The Act ended the $7,500 EV tax credit for vehicles built outside of North America. It’s reportedly spelling good news for U.S. manufacturers and supply chains as the world’s auto market makes the transition to electric vehicles over the coming decade.

But, because of the new stipulations in the IRA, automakers around the globe are accelerating plans to build electric vehicles in the U.S., according to Auto News. Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz actually started delivering U.S.-made EVs at the end of last year.

Asian and European brands own a comparatively very small piece of the EV sales pie. On the other hand, Texas-based Tesla leads the pack with 64 percent of the market share in the first 11 months of 2022, according to Experian’s data. Ford came in second place with 7.4 percent of the market. It was followed by Chevrolet at 4.7 percent, Kia at 4 percent, Hyundai at 3.7 percent, Volkswagen at 2.4 percent, Audi at 2.2 percent and Rivian at 1.9 percent.

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“This increased domestic EV production, inspired by the IRA, will build the supply chain quicker than anyone previously thought possible,” Sam Fiorani, vice president of global vehicle forecasting at AutoForeceast Solutions, said. “As long as the IRA remains open-ended, without time or volume limitations, the battery and component infrastructure will grow in North America until the market becomes saturated sometime after 2035.”

As you may have expected, the best selling EVs on the market in the first 11 months of 2022 were led by the Tesla Model Y. The automaker reportedly sold 200,592 crossovers. Coming in second was another Tesla, the Model 3 sedan, which sold 175,661 units. Third was the Ford Mustang Mach-E with 34,643 registrations, with fourth and fifth place again occupied by Tesla vehicles: the Model X and Model S, which had 30,125 registrations and 25,362 registrations respectively. Rounding out the top 10 U.S. EV registrations were the Chevrolet Bolt EUV with 22,421 registrations, Hyundai Ioniq 5 with 21,086 registrations and the Kia EV6 with 19,163. After that we have the Volkswagen ID.4 with 16.345 registrations, and finally the Rivian R1T pickup with 11,637 registrations.

It’ll be interesting to see how these market dynamics shift over the next few years as more and more automakers qualify for the $7,500 EV tax credit.