Chart: EV sales grew slowly in 2024 — but still set new records

Canary Media’s chart of the week translates crucial data about the clean energy transition into a visual format. 

Electric vehicle sales set a new record in the U.S. last year, but the pace of growth was sluggish compared to previous years. In 2024, 1.3 million new EVs were sold in the country, over 7 percent more than were sold the previous year, per new data from Kelley Blue Book.

Electric vehicles — as well as plug-in hybrids, which have larger rechargeable batteries than traditional hybrids — have made significant inroads in the U.S. in recent years.

In 2020, EVs accounted for less than 2 percent of new car sales. Last year, that figure was about 8 percent, and Cox Automotive forecasts it to rise to 10 percent this year. If you add in plug-in hybrids and standard hybrids, Cox expects that one in four cars sold in the U.S. in 2025 will not be pure internal-combustion-engine vehicles.

The five best-selling EVs in 2024 were the Tesla Model Y, Tesla Model 3, Ford Mustang Mach-E, Hyundai Ioniq 5, and the hate-it-or-love-it Tesla Cybertruck.

Though sales grew at a slower pace last year, weighed down by stubbornly high prices and lingering concerns over charging, the market picked up at the end of the year. EV sales grew by 15 percent year over year in the fourth quarter. Analysts attributed the surge in part to consumers scrambling to lock in EV tax credits that President-elect Donald Trump might repeal.

The incoming Trump administration has cast deep uncertainty over the domestic EV industry. Aside from the consumer EV tax credit, the outlook is unclear for the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office, which has awarded tens of billions in low-interest loans to EV-makers including Ford, Rivian, Stellantis, and — years ago — Tesla. Trump is all but certain to jettison tailpipe emissions rules meant to push automakers away from making gas cars, despite pleas from the industry to preserve the stricter rules given the substantial investments they’ve already made in EVs.

Still, Cox expects that EV sales will continue to grow this year. Whether that happens fast enough to make a dent in emissions from the U.S. transportation sector is a different question.