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Last Updated on: 16th April 2025, 03:11 am
As they say, everything’s relative. Well, not everything — if it was, the word “relative” wouldn’t exist. But sometimes we want to or need to understand things in absolute terms, and other times we want to or need to understand things in relative terms. I have to say that I am a total sucker for crunching data to see who cleantech leaders are in relative terms.
Earlier today, I reported on the auto brands selling the most electric vehicles in the United States so far this year. And that follows a look at the top selling EV models in the country and charts on the long-term growth of the EV market in the USA. Now, let’s take a look at something you won’t find anywhere else — the share of sales from the market’s auto brands and auto groups that are now EV sales. (And, yes, we’re just looking at pure EV sales here, not including plugin hybrids.)
In the first chart, looking at auto brands, I’m including pure electric companies. However, in the chart for auto groups and alliances, I’m excluding them since that makes the chart harder to examine.
Including the pure EV brands is really just to give them a nod. Let’s hope they all survive. The highlight legacy brand, though, is Fiat. If you go to its website, Fiat is only selling electric vehicles now. However, there are still some legacy gas-powered Fiats hanging around on lots, so Fiat’s apparently not at 100% EV sales yet — but it should get there soon! Of course, Fiat has the lowest volume of sales among all auto brands in the country, so it’s a footnote, but kudos to Fiat nonetheless. (Fiat moved only 522 vehicles in the 1st quarter, and while that was a 239% increase in sales year over year, it was barely more than a quarter of Alfa Romeo’s sales!)
What’s really exciting is how high the EV share of Porsche and Cadillac sales has become. Porsche, with top-quality racing genes, is in first among notable auto brands, with 23% of its sales being electric in the 1st quarter, but Cadillac isn’t far behind at 19% share. Funny enough, I was just commenting to myself today that I am now constantly seeing Cadillac LYRIQs everywhere I go and they seem to account for most of the Cadillacs I see on the road. I’ve also seen a few Cadillac Escalade IQs — Cadillac’s top-of-the-line offering now. EVs have clearly become the most premium and desired vehicles on the market.
Other premium brands account for the next three positions on the chart — Acura (15.6% EV share despite being very new to the EV world), BMW (15.5% EV share), and Audi (13.8% EV share). Then we get Volkswagen, which has tried to be bold in its EV transition plans and now has almost 11% of its US sales coming from EVs. (I know, I’d much rather see it at 44% by now, but it is the leading mid-market auto brand and deserves some props for that.) MINI is the last brand to be in double digits, and that was just barely at 10.0% of its sales coming from EVs.
Not much more is notable on there if we don’t want to highlight the laggards, but the biggest shocker of the whole chart for me was seeing Dodge at 9% EV sales. Dodge! Well, I guess Dodge buyers are very into performance, and everyone should know by now that there’s no competing with the instant torque of electric motors. I guess enough Dodge drivers got smoked by Teslas and other EVs that they decided to buy the first electric Dodge on the market. Hopefully that will encourage Dodge to produce and sell more EVs ASAP.
Looking at auto groups and alliances, EV share of sales gets watered down a bit. The brands that shine get diluted by the brands that don’t. Some people prefer this ranking, though, because it shows more fully how much a corporation is behind the transition to EVs.
In this ranking, we see BMW Group — long a pioneer in EVs trying to be a leader of the revolution — reaching 15% EV sales. Volkswagen Group comes in honorably in the silver medal position.
Clearly, the Germans are far ahead of the pack, as 3rd place Hyundai–Kia had just 5.5% of sales coming from EVs. By almost all accounts, that’s not a percentage to be proud of. Relatively speaking, though, it did beat every other mass-market legacy auto group/alliance.
Do any others deserve mention? Well, at least GM, Mercedes-Benz Group, Ford Motor Company, and Honda Motor Company are above 4%, but it’s hard to cheer them on at such low EV shares. Just don’t look further down the list.
Let me know down in the comments — do the automakers that rank in the top three to five places in these rankings deserve praise for being leaders in a weak market, or should they all be shamed for not achieving higher percentages by now? I’m torn between the two points of view.
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