Washington State Vehicle Sales - December 2023

[Poiu]

The data for vehicle sales in WA was made available this week from Dept of Licensing, with sales based on new vehicle title transactions up to end December 2023. This data has been filtering to only include cars, SUVs, and trucks.

Question: What is the market share of ICE, hybrid, and EV vehicles; how has it changed over time?
Answer:

• ICE share has significantly declined since 2017 with hybrids and BEV’s taking share. ICE has declined from 93% of vehicles registered in 2017 to 67% of vehicles registered in 2023.
• BEV (all battery) share has increased from 1.5% share in 2017 to 15.5% in 2023.
• The number and share of both hybrid (HEV) and plug-in hybrid (PHEV) have increased to 14% and 3% respectively in 2023.
• For King County in 2023, ICE sales have declined to 59%, with BEV sales increasing to 23%.

Question: For 2023, which brands sold the most cars and of what type?
Answer:

• Toyota easily leads the way in 2023 new vehicle sales, selling 17.5% of all vehicles, almost twice the number of vehicles as second place Subaru, with Tesla in a close third. 37% of Toyota sales were hybrids.

Question: For 2023, for all vehicle types, which models were the most popular?
Answer:

• The Tesla Model Y leads the Toyota Rav4, then the Honda CR-V.
• The Tesla Model 3 is fifth.

Question: For 2023, which brands sold the most BEVs and which vehicles?
Answer:

• Tesla sold 55% of all BEVs, with Rivian and Hyundai next.
• Tesla MY and M3 were best-selling BEVs, with VW ID4 a distant third.

Question: What is the sales trend for BEVs for the top selling brands?
Answer:

• Universally small numbers compared to Tesla.
• Generally increasing numbers though, with Hyundai and Rivian doing the best.
• It’s disappointing to see most traditional brands do so badly in their EVs sales, with huge numbers of vehicles piling up on their lots. Taking the Model Y LR for example, generally the competition is much more expensive compared to the MY, especially with the MY still qualifying for the full $7500 tax credit and that now being at point of sale in 2024. Only Hyundai seem to be reacting so far, with compelling cars and $7500 to $10000 discounts to make their cars competitive. The Chevy Bolt has been discontinued and the Ford Mach-E and VW ID4 both lost their tax credits, so the major competitors to the Tesla MY are likely to do even worse in 2024!

Question: How have BEV vehicle sales changed in 2023 compared to 2022 by Make?
Answer:

• IMO – great results for Rivian (given high price). Poor result for Nissan, with new the Ariya starting sales in February’23. Disaster for Lucid. Shocked that Kia didn’t do better, given their compelling vehicles, although EV6 is $8K to $12K more expensive than MY. Polestar was supposed to be a ‘Tesla killer’, but sales are a disaster – nice cars, but way overpriced.

Question: How has EV selection improved?
Answer:

• The selection has almost doubled in 2 years. 53 distinct BEV models were sold in 2023, compared to 27 different models in 2021.

 

[LoudMusic]

I'm amazed there were 7% of non ICE vehicles in 2017. I would have guessed 2 or 3 %.

It's good to see BEVs taking so much market share. I don't think it's a configuration that works for every use case, but I do think it's the right technology for the vast majority of users. Mostly it's a matter of showing it to those people and letting them figure it out for themselves. That seems to be happening on its own. Yay!

I found this perspective about hydrogen a little odd a little odd.

MAN CEO: "impossible" for hydrogen to compete with BEVs

The CEO of German truck manufacturer MAN says it's impossible for hydrogen to compete with EVs. So why is he investing in fuel cells?

electrek.co

 

[Poiu]

The most popular non-ICE vehicles in 2017 - lot's of hybrids, Nissan selling Leaf's, Ford Fusion, etc.