I have lived almost all of my life on the West Coast so occasionally have to remind myself that it can be meaningfully different than the rest of the country when it comes to automotive preferences.
Recent sales figures published by the California New Car Dealers Association illustrate why. For the 2022 calendar year Tesla was the second-best-selling brand in that state, only behind Toyota. This was in contrast to the U.S., where Tesla was well back in the pack and Toyota, Ford, Chevrolet, Honda and Hyundai were the top-five brands (CNCDA, 2022).
I have been curious as to whether Tesla was going to take a sales hit in 2023 due to a larger number of EV competitors and the Twitter escapades of company head Elon Musk. In the first quarter, the Tesla brand held onto its Number 2 spot and its Model 3 and Model Y continued to be the state’s top-selling passenger car and truck, respectively (CNCDA, 2023).
Also see ‘Can Elon Musk survive at Tesla in the wake of his Twitter disaster?’
That said, Tesla’s share of the EV market in California was only 59.6 percent in the first quarter, down from 72.7 for all of 2022. Competitors such as Volkswagen, Chevrolet and Kia bit into Tesla’s market share even though they each remained in single digits. Tesla’s sales in California represented 16 percent of the automaker’s global deliveries in 2022 (Jin, 2023).
California still biggest state for zero-emission vehicles
Between 2020 and 2022 the market share of EVs in California jumped from 6.2 percent to 17.1 percent. Add in hybrids and plug-in hybrids and the market share reached 31.1 percent (CNCDA, 2022). California accounted for 40 percent of all U.S. zero-emission vehicles sales in 2022 (Reuters, 2022).
California isn’t the only western state where EVs and plug-in hybrids are unusually popular. For the first quarter of 2023, the next five states with the highest market share (in order) were Oregon, Washington, Hawaii, Nevada and Colorado (CNCDA, 2023).
Of course, California also deviates from the rest of the nation when it comes to the popularity of domestic brands and vehicles types. The market share of Big Three products was 8.1 percent lower in the state than in the U.S. in 2022. In addition, light trucks represented only 66.4 percent of registrations in California — a good 10.4 percent lower than nationally (CNCDA, 2022).
NOTES:
Figures are from California Auto Outlook, which is published by Auto Outlook, Inc. on behalf of the California New Car Dealers Association. EV estimates were based on registrations compiled by Experian Automotive, and engine installment rates collected from other sources.
RE:SOURCES
- CNCDA; 2022. California Auto Outlook. California New Car Dealers Association. Vol. 19, No. 1.
- ——; 2023. California Auto Outlook. California New Car Dealers Association. Vol. 19, No. 2.
- Jin, Hyunjoo; 2023. “Tesla’s California market share tumbles despite aggressive price cuts.” Reuters. Posted April 22.
- Reuters, 2022. “California accounted for 40% of U.S. zero-emission vehicle sales in 2022.” Posted Jan. 23.
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