Tesla Lost Market Share In Q4. It’s No Problem.

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Final numbers are in for U.S. 2022 battery-electric vehicle sales.

Tesla

dominated again, but that doesn’t tell the entire story of EVs in America.

For the full year, 808,619 EVs were sold in the U.S., including 225,689 sold in the fourth quarter. That’s up about 66% from the 488,397 sold in all of 2022. Fourth quarter EV sales volumes jumped about 58% from the 148,977 sold in the final quarter of 2021.

It was a pretty good year for the disruptive technology. EV penetration of new U.S. car sales in 2022 hit almost 6%, up from roughly 3% in 2021. Thirty EV models sold more than 1,000 units in the U.S. this past year, up from 18 models hitting that mark in 2021.

Tesla

(ticker: TSLA) finished the year with the top two selling EVs, the Model Y and the Model 3, and four of the top six models.

Tesla

‘s market share dropped to about 65% of new EV sales in 2022 from about 72% in 2021.

Tesla U.S. market share in the fourth quarter of 2022 was about 58% down from almost 78% market share in the fourth quarter of 2021.

Share is down, but no one really expected Tesla to keep more than 70% of any global automotive market. In China for 2022, Tesla’s share of battery-electric EV sales likely finished around 12%. In Western Europe, Tesla’s final market share of battery-electric vehicle sales should fall between 15% and 20%.

In the U.S., Tesla is the only EV seller with multiple models in the top ten of sales volumes.

Ford Motor

(F) just missed out on that distinction with the all-electric F-150 Lightning coming in eleventh. The top ten EVs in the U.S. for 2022 were the: Tesla Model Y, Tesla Model 3, Ford Mustang Mach E, Chevy Bolt, Tesla Model S, Tesla Model X, Hyundai Ioniq 5,

Volkswagen

ID.4, Kia EV6 and Rivian R1T.

Ford can take some solace in the fact it came in as the number two seller of EVs in the U.S. for all of 2022. Tesla sold 522,388 EVs in the U.S. in 2022. Ford sold 61,575 units.

General Motors

(GM) was number three with just over 39,000 units sold. Overall, 11 car brand sold more than 10,000 EVs in 2022, up from seven in 2021.

Looking ahead, U.S. EV sales should grow again in 2023 thanks in part to a new $7,500 purchase tax credit that was passed as part of the Inflation Reduction Act. That credit essentially makes the cost of a new Chevy Bolt as low as $21,000. A new Model Y can be had for essentially about $46,000. A new F-150 Lightning can cost as little as $49,000.

All three of those prices are less than the almost $50,000 average price paid by Americans for a new car in December.

EVs are getting cheaper as the U.S. economy is weakening a little. It will be interesting to see how the year develops for the EV industry as well as the entire car business in 2023.