When analyzing all-electric car sales, often we focus on the volume, although there is a more important thing and that’s the share of BEVs out of the automaker’s total sales. This shows how advanced a carmaker is on its electrification journey to become 100% electric someday.
In today’s post, we will compare the battery electric vehicle (BEV) share out of the total sales of 18 brands in the U.S. (Audi, BMW, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Ford, Genesis, GMC, Hyundai, Kia, Lexus, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Porsche, Subaru, Toyota, Volkswagen and Volvo), during the third quarter of 2023 and for the first nine months of the year.
The list of brands includes only traditional ones, for which data are available. Brands that sell only all-electric cars (like Tesla) are excluded for an obvious reason (the share is always 100%). A comparison of sales volume can be found in the previous report.
BEV Sales By Brands – Q3 2023
The comparison of the BEV share out of the total sales right away brings us very interesting results. The highest share is noted by the premium brands.
In Q3, 15.6 percent of all BMW car sales in the U.S. were all-electric. Mercedes-Benz was only slightly behind with a 14.7 percent share. Next, we can see Audi (12.7 percent), Volkswagen (12.2 percent; the top mainstream brand), Porsche (10.3 percent) and Volvo (10 percent).
For reference, the industry average is estimated at around 7-8 percent, but that’s mostly thanks to Tesla, which alone has about a four percent market share. For the non-Tesla brands, the average BEV share is lower than four percent (and for traditional brands, it’s probably just over three percent).
In the case of the mainstream brands, the top one in Q3 was the Volkswagen brand (12.2 percent). Hyundai had at least 8.3 percent (data for the Kona Electric is not available), while its sister brand Kia noted 4.8 percent of its sales being electric.
Ford and Chevrolet so far are slightly above the industry average for established brands, with respectively 4.4 and 3.5 percent, but let’s also keep in mind that those two have a very high share of pickups (electrification of pickups is low, which lowers the result).
Nissan, once a pioneer of all-electric cars, appears to be below average for traditional brands with just a three percent BEV share. Toyota barely recorded 0.5 percent (meanwhile its premium arm Lexus is at nearly two percent).
Here is a tree map version of the chart:
* Excludes Tesla and other brands for which data was not available
** Hyundai sales without the Hyundai Kona Electric model
*** Mercedes-Benz (excluding vans)
BEV Sales By Brands – Q1-Q3 2023
According to sales data analyzed by InsideEVs, after the first three quarters of the year, the brands with the highest all-electric car share are Mercedes-Benz (14.1 percent), BMW (12.2 percent), and Volvo (11.8 percent).
Interestingly the Volkswagen brand is strong at (11.7 percent), followed by Audi (10.5 percent), Porsche (9.3 percent), and Genesis (8.6 percent). Hyundai was the best of the rest with at least 5.6 percent.
Chevrolet and Ford recorded, respectively, a 3.8 percent and 3.2 percent BEV share out of their total sales, showing that there is some work to do to at least catch up with Hyundai. Toyota is far behind at 0.5 percent, but we know that the Japanese company was focused on non-rechargeable hybrids (HEVs), with a small addition of rechargeable hybrids (PHEVs).
Here is a tree map version of the chart:
* Excludes Tesla and other brands for which data was not available
** Hyundai sales without the Hyundai Kona Electric model
*** Mercedes-Benz (excluding vans)
In 2024, the first traditional brands should be able to reach a 20 percent share of all-electric car sales, while the mainstream brands should move towards 5-10 percent (Volkswagen already is above this level).
If you are interested in seeing more detailed sales results for the individual brands, please check our previous reports:
