The U.S. EV market is the world's second-largest market outside of China, with a total of 254,000 NEVs sold in the first quarter of 2024, up 2% year-on-year. In the U.S. market, local brands have an absolute advantage, accounting for more than 75% of the share, of which Tesla is the absolute hegemon, and the sales of one car company exceed the sales of other car companies combined.
For well-known reasons, China's new energy vehicles are almost excluded from the U.S. market, but surprisingly, one Chinese car company made the list, tied for thirteenth.
Let's take a look at the specific rankings and sales on the list, and then introduce them one by one.
The picture comes from China Automotive Digital Research Institute
BYD is far ahead in China, and Tesla is far ahead in the United States, ranking first with 140,000 sales, and its market share has reached an astonishing 55.5%, surpassing all other car companies combined, accounting for more than half of the country.
Tesla's sales in the Chinese market in the first quarter of this year were 130,000 units, although there was only a difference of 10,000 units, but our market is larger and the penetration rate is higher.
Although Tesla's starting price in the United States is more than 50,000 yuan higher than that in China, due to the high electric vehicle tax credits and various subsidies in the United States, local consumers can buy a Model 3 for as little as more than 28,000 US dollars (about 200,000 yuan), and the terminal price is significantly lower than that in China. In addition, production costs are higher in the United States, and Tesla's Shanghai factory has the highest profits in the world, as well as the highest profits in the Chinese market.
Traditional automakers Ford and GM ranked second and fourth with sales of 20,000 and 16,000 units, with market shares of 8% and 6.5%, respectively.
Rivian and Lucid belong to the "new forces" of car manufacturing in the United States, with sales of 13,000 and 1,967 units, respectively, ranking fifth and eleventh. Rivian manufactures electric pickup trucks and SUVs.
The most surprising thing is that Geely from China ranked 13th with 1,069 units sold. For Geely, sales volume and ranking don't seem to matter, the key is how to enter the U.S. market?
When the editor inquired about the brand's sales, it was found that the sales of Volvo pure electric vehicles in the United States were 1069 units, so the answer came out. Geely is, after all, the parent company of Volvo, and it makes sense to put sales on its head, while the Volvo brand is not subject to any restrictions and exclusions in the United States.
However, I feel that there is a data omission in this list, and Polestar, a joint venture between Volvo and Geely, has also entered the North American market, but there is no sales data for it here.
Hyundai-Kia Group ranks third, South Korea is still keeping up with the general trend of new energy vehicles, not only car companies have good sales, South Korea's power batteries also occupy more than half of the market share in the United States.
The overall share of German cars in the United States exceeds 12%, ranking second among car series, and the brand advantages of Volkswagen, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz still exist in the field of new energy.
Japanese cars as a whole are lagging behind, Nissan and Toyota have combined sales of less than 10,000 units, and Honda is the first iron, and there are almost no electric car sales.
Although the growth of electric vehicles in the United States has continued to rise, the growth in the first quarter of this year has slowed significantly, mainly because the sales of the Model 3 are declining, and the reason given by Tesla is that it has suspended part of the production line in order to launch new cars.
Tesla's impact on the U.S. electric vehicle market is huge, and the whole market will tremble if you sneeze, and once Tesla's sales decline, the market will weaken. For a mature market, over-reliance on a car company is abnormal, and only when Tesla's sales share falls below 50% will the market truly develop healthily. But without Chinese brands coming in, it's hard to shake Tesla's position in the U.S.