The United States enjoyed significant growth in all-electric car registrations in April 2023, significantly boosted by the Inflation Reduction Act’s incentives,
The US BEV industry recorded 348,258 registrations from January to April; Automotive News reports citing Experian data. Notably, that figure indicates a 72% year-on-year growth, representing 7% of the overall market (up 4.4% YoY).
For comparison, the US registered more than five million light-duty vehicles, the data shows.
Tesla leads the BEV market in Jan-Apr 2023
As expected, the Musk-led automaker dominated the BEV market in the first four months of the year, recording 211,842 new registrations (up 52% YoY). That figure represented the majority of the BEV market, with a share of approximately 60.8%.
That said, CEO Elon Musk’s strategy to compromise profit for volume seems effective in the US market.
“We’ve taken the view that pushing for higher volumes and a larger fleet is the right choice here, versus a lower volume and higher margin. However, we expect our vehicles over time will be able to generate significant profit through autonomy.”
CEO Elon Musk said during the conference call on April 20
As shown in the table below, the Tesla Model Y and 3 secured the top two spots with sales of 127,541 and 72,259 units. The Chevrolet Bolt EUV followed it with 16,036 sales. Germany’s Volkswagen ID.4 ranked fourth with 11,858 sales. Meanwhile, the EV variant of the Chevrolet Bolt claimed the fifth spot.
Top BEV models in the US:
| Models | Jan.-April 2023 | Jan.-April 2022 |
| 1. Tesla Model Y | 127,541 | 64,131 |
| 2. Tesla Model 3 | 72,259 | 56,484 |
| 3. Chevrolet Bolt EUV | 16,036 | 1,191 |
| 4. Volkswagen ID4 | 11,858 | 3,527 |
| 5. Chevrolet Bolt EV | 8,653 | 454 |
| 6. Tesla Model X | 8,216 | 7,141 |
| 7. Ford Mustang Mach-E | 7,972 | 10,625 |
| 8. Hyundai Ioniq 5 | 7,957 | 8,589 |
| 9. Ford F-150 Lightning | 7,085 | 100 |
| 10. BMW i4 | 6,560 | 250 |
Tesla dominates the luxury car segment in Jan-Apr 2023
Tesla also dominated the luxury car segment in the US, with its total sales of 211,842 units (up 52% YoY). German automaker BMW followed it with 114,889 sales, with a slight YoY growth of 8.6%.
The top five were completed by Lexus (95,511), Mercedes-Benz (86,033), and Audi (72,582).
Top luxury car brands in the US:
| Brands | Jan.-April 2023 | Jan.-April 2022 | Change |
| 1. Tesla | 211,842 | 139,241 | +52% |
| 2. BMW | 114,889 | 105,809 | +8.6% |
| 3. Lexus | 95,511 | 88,249 | +8.2% |
| 4. Mercedes-Benz | 86,033 | 82,333 | +4.5% |
| 5. Audi | 72,582 | 50,757 | +43% |
| 6. Cadillac | 51,185 | 40,449 | +27% |
| 7. Acura | 45,929 | 39,552 | +16% |
| 8. Volvo | 35,466 | 33,252 | +6.7% |
| 9. Lincoln | 26,402 | 27,939 | -5.5% |
| 10. Porsche | 23,288 | 19,293 | +21% |
| 11. Land Rover | 22,514 | 19,453 | +16% |
| 12. Infiniti | 21,122 | 16,059 | +32% |
| 13. Genesis | 19,901 | 16,889 | +18% |
| 14. Alfa Romeo | 3,191 | 4,435 | -28% |
| 15. Jaguar | 3,046 | 3,236 | -5.9% |
Indeed, the results in the first four months of the year are a significant improvement for the market leader Tesla over Q1 registrations, which was up 37% YoY.
The report noted that Tesla’s April registrations alone recorded 56,482 units, beating its own monthly average of 51,787 units from January to March.
See Also:
- US: New vehicle sales to soar 15.6% in May
- US: Tesla on track to beat VW Group, BMW, and Mercedes in Q1 2023 sales
- Ford more than doubled its BEV sales in the US in January 2023
- US: Toyota plug-in car sales down by a third in 2022
- US: BMW reports BEV sales of over 15,000 in 2022
Considering Tesla’s advanced strategies, it is unsurprising that the automaker has been leading the US market. Tesla has implemented numerous price cuts in its EVs to make them more affordable and qualify for the price cap under the federal tax credits, which offer up to $7,500 for eligible models.
Apart from that, Tesla’s massive and reliable charging network also drives its sales, with other rivals (Ford & GM) already planning to adopt its charging technology. Likewise, major charging solution providers also announced that they would join the growing Tesla NACS family, following the automakers’ news to support the technology. Some of them are EVgo, ABB E-mobility, etc.
