Why EV Sales Are Growing Again

After a period of decline, EV adoption is on the rise. Here's why.

For the last month, I’ve been gathering data on the current state of EV adoption in America. This story—like our recent stories on EV charging and home electrification—requires many hours of original research. If you want to support this work, please consider becoming a paid subscriber or sharing this newsletter with a friend.

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At the beginning of this year, things were not looking good for electric vehicle adoption in America.

After three years of explosive growth, suddenly EV sales started to plummet. What at first looked like a normal slowing of growth—something to be expected due to the “law of large numbers” and previous years’ success—turned into something much more troubling. EV market share was falling; gas combustion vehicle market share was rising; and climate progress was not just screeching to a halt, but in a full reversal.

In recent months, the trend has reversed once more. EV adoption is back on a steep growth curve again.

9% of cars sold in the U.S. over the last three months were battery electric vehicles (BEVs), up from a recent low of 7% in April. Add in plug-in electric vehicles (PHEVs) to the mix, and the numbers look better still. 11% of vehicles sold over the last three months were either partly or fully electric.

The recent rise of electric vehicle market share is being driven by both EV growth and internal combustion engine (ICE) decline. Since last summer, the growth rate of gas-powered vehicle sales has been falling. For six months now, the growth rate of battery electric vehicle sales has been rising.

In today’s story we’ll explore the reasons for these trends. We’ll cover:

• Why EV sales slowed down in the first place

• Why falling interest rates probably aren’t the cause of recent growth

• The role that incentives and price wars play in all this

• The rise of more affordable EVs and more models

• How electric SUV and truck sales are driving a lot of the growth