The share of electric vehicles in the United States remains well under 2%, but last year EVs began to gain some ground in the country, market research shows. Last year saw 208,000 new registrations for electric vehicles, more than double the year before when some 100,000 EVs were registered.
The spread of electric vehicles was largely due to a growth in sales in California, where 95,000 new electric vehicles were registered in 2018, accounting for 46% of total registrations in the U.S. The famously green state, which has a population of 39 million in a nation of 327 million, boasts 59% of the market share in EVs in the country.
California isn’t the only state where EVs are on the roll. Nine other states with government-mandated Zero Emission Vehicle standards (from Vermont to New York) also contributed to the upsurge in EV sales in 2018. Analysts at the research firm IHS Markit expect that, thanks to government incentives, more competitive pricing and the arrival of new EV models, electric vehicles could reach sales of 350,000 units next year and more than 1.1 million by 2025.
“A rapid increase in EV nameplates is the catalyst behind the projected growth throughout the next decade,” says Devin Lindsay, an analyst at IHS Markit. “While relatively successful models such as the Tesla Model 3 mature in the market, other traditional automakers will be rolling out not just one EV as we have seen in the past, but multiple models off dedicated EV platforms.”
In tandem with growing sales, the number of repeat customers has also been growing. Some 55% of electric vehicle owners have gone on to purchase another EV, indicating that consumer satisfaction with electric vehicles is on the increase.
“EV loyalty rates have been steadily increasing since their introduction by OEMs. This increase over such a short timeframe demonstrates that a portion of the US market is highly accepting of this new technology and has a growing comfort level with it,” says Tom Libby, another analyst at IHS Markit. “As more new models enter the market, we anticipate an even further increase in loyalty to these vehicles.”
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