Two major news sources (Economist: economist.com, EE News: www.eenews.net) reported yesterday (22 Mar 2022) that “light vehicle” EV sales have sharply accelerated at the expense of tradition (internal combustion engine or ICE) sales. For example, Jan 2022 EV sales in the US were up 44% year on year, whereas ICE sales had declined 1.3% over that same time period (ICE sales having a much larger “base” number of sales).
Overall US EV sales averaged 4.4% of new light vehicle sales in 2021, more than double the market share in 2020. Colorado’s EV sales had a market share of 6.2%, lagging only CA, DC, HI, and OR.
Tesla’s European sales were up 30% in December 2021 year on year (prior to Tesla’s first delivery from Tesla’s new Berlin giga-factory). VW’s European sales were down 30% in the same time period. Judging from the graphs accompanying the Economist article on European sales, Mercedes’ sales, at least in Germany, declined more than VW’s loss.
These sales trends predated the sharp rise in gasoline prices accompanying the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and have presumably not diminished since.
EV charging points are also multiplying, but perhaps more slowly: US public charging points in 2021 increased 16% to 44,500 sites and 110,158 points. Various sources of funding (federal, state, and private) are piling into the effort to facilitate EV charging in the US, but it remains to be seen whether charging supply will keep up with sharply surging demand.
Late 2021 witnessed a remarkable spate of announcements from the legacy producers (e.g., VW, Subaru, Toyota, Ford, GM) hyping not-so-soon-to-be-released electric vehicles, perhaps with the subtext that buyers should hold off EV purchases until the legacy producers could get into the game. Presumably the legacy producers were motivated by seeing the sharp 2021 decline in their own ICE sales.
Speaking of new EV releases, I understand that the Durango area’s first Rivian truck will be arriving in the next few days. Look for it. The gas to electric vehicle conversion is gathering speed!
