Electric Vehicles Market Share: We’re Number 21
During the first half of 2023, Tesla ranked as Number 1 (Model Y) and Number 2 (Model 3) in the worldwide EV market. The next four positions were held by the Chinese company BYD. Chinese companies held twelve of the twenty top spots in EV sales during this time. Chinese EV manufacturers are producing highly sophisticated, beautifully designed, and most importantly, affordable vehicles, that are rapidly filling markets throughout the world—except for the United States. In May 2024, the Biden administration imposed a 100 percent tariff on Chinese EVs. President Biden justified the move to protect American jobs and market share, arguing that the Chinese “are flooding the market. It’s not competing—it’s cheating.” Indeed, the threat was real. Ford Motor Company CEO Jim Farley was “shocked” in a 2024 visit to China, seeing first-hand the extraordinary improvement in manufacturing, design, and features in Chinese EVs. Ford, which until very recently had been the second ranked EV producer (behind Tesla) in the United States, had been losing an estimated $36,000 on each of the 36,000 EVs it had delivered to its dealers during the third quarter of 2024. General Motors postponed plans for a $4 billion electric vehicle plant to be opened in Michigan.
The government of China has determined that the production of EVs would be a strategic investment, providing economic benefits as well as reducing air pollution and dependence on foreign oil. By 2022, the automobile company BYD had sold 1.85 million EVs, becoming the world’s second largest producer, behind Tesla; in 2023, BYD became the world leader in fully electric cars. Its best-selling EV, the Seagull, sells for around $11,000. Currently, the Chinese consumer can choose from almost 300 models; in addition, 80 percent of the top EVs sold in China are made by Chinese companies. Like Norway, China has offered a series of subsidies and tax breaks, both for the manufacturers of EVs and their customers, often making EVs cheaper than ICE vehicles. For BYD, the Chinese government had invested $2.6 billion from 2008 through 2022; the company was also given critical assistance from American investor Warren E. Buffet, who bought 10 percent of BYD in 2008, giving the company a critical infusion of cash. The central government also has invested in 760,000 public fast-charging stations and 1 million public slower-charging stations—more than the rest of the world combined. It also adopted a variation of the California zero-emissions mandate to eventually replace subsidies.
As journalist Joel Jaeger noted, “policies mandating 100 percent EV sales are the single most effective policy to drive the transition. Currently, sixteen countries including Canada, Japan and the United Kingdom, have some form of policy mandating 100 percent EV sales in 2035 or earlier.”
Sources: José Pontes, “World EV Sales Now 19% of World Sales!” CleanTechnica.com, August 2, 2023, https://cleantechnica.com/2023/08/02/world-ev-sales-now-19-of-world-auto-sales/; Mike Colias, “What Scared Ford’s CEO in China,” Wall Street Journal, September 14, 2024, https://www.wsj.com/business/autos/ford-china-ev-competition-farley-ceo-50ded461; Biden quote from Natalie Sherman, “Biden Hits Chinese Electric Cars and Solar Cells with Higher Tariffs,” BBC, May 14, 2024, https://www.bbc.com/news/business-69004520; David Shepherdson and Nathan Gomes, “Ford Cuts F-150 Lightning Production as EV Demand Softens,” Reuters, January 19, 2024, https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/ford-reduce-f-150-lightning-production-2024-01-19/#:~:text=Ford%20lost%20an%20estimated%20%2436%2C000,sales%20of%20gas%2Delectric%20hybrids; Keith Bradsher, “How China built BYD, Its Tesla Killer,” New York Times, February 10, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/12/business/byd-china-electric-vehicle.html; Joel Jaeger, “These Countries Are Adopting Electric Vehicles the Fastest,” World Resources Institute, September 14, 2023, https://www.wri.org/insights/countries-adopting-electric-vehicles-fastest#:~:text=The%20top%205%20countries%20with,%25)%2C%20according%20to%20our%20analysis.
Topping the list of EV adoptions is Norway, which in 2022 saw 87.8 percent of its new automobiles as EVs; in 2013, that figure was just 6.1 percent. Iceland is 2nd, with 56.1 percent new car adoptions (1.3 percent in 2013); Sweden is tied for 2nd with 56.1 percent adoption (0.7 percent in 2013); Denmark is 4th, with 38.6 percent adoption (0.3 in 2013), and Finland is 5th, with 37.5 percent adoption (none in 2013).
The United States comes in 21st place, with 7.7 percent EV adoption in 2022, with a 0.16 percent adoption in 2013.
But with the second Trump administration, electric vehicles were no longer a priority. Trump, two months before taking office for his second term, vowed to get rid of the $7,500 tax credit for electric vehicle purchases. His close adviser, Elon Musk, heartily agreed. “Take away the subsidies, it will only help Tesla,” Musk posted on X, the social media platform he owns. The elimination of the tax credit would most likely hurt General Motors, Ford, Rivian, and Stellantis—the weakest American rivals to Tesla. On January 20, 2025, his first day in office, Trump cancelled the EV tax credit. Edmunds.com, an automobile purchasing guide, warned that “the potential elimination of the federal tax credit for electric vehicles by the Trump administration—without another form of incentive to replace it—could derail the trajectory of EV sales in the United States.”
Sources: Executive Order, “Unleashing American Energy,” White House, January 20, 2025, https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/unleashing-american-energy; /Kate Gibson, “Trump’s Win Could Sharply Raise the Cost of Electric Vehicles. Here’s Why,” CBS News, November 15,2024, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tesla-elon-musk-donald-trump-ev-tax-credit/.
