Fueled largely by the production ramp-up of Tesla鈥檚 鈥渕ass market鈥 Model 3, electric vehicle sales in the United States jumped 81 percent in 2018 compared to the previous year. According to , an online platform tracking the progress of electric mobility, plug-in electric vehicle sales amounted to 361,307 in the U.S. last year, up from 199,826 in 2017.
While that is by far the biggest jump in EV sales ever recorded in this still nascent market, it still isn鈥檛 enough to put electric cars anywhere near mass adoption. In fact, for every electric car sold in 2018, 50 conventionally powered cars hit America鈥檚 roads, meaning that electric vehicles accounted for just 2.1 percent of the 17.2 million light vehicles sold in the U.S. over the past twelve months.
Considering that President Trump recently and took credit for supposedly telling people at OPEC to 鈥渓et that damn oil and gasoline flow鈥, the outlook for electric mobility isn鈥檛 as positive as last year鈥檚 growth rate would suggest though. It remains to be seen if the momentum can be kept going without the impetus of a new Tesla model launching.
Electric vehicle sales in the United States
Electric Mobility Has a Long Way to Go
Description
This chart shows estimated plug-in electric vehicle and total light vehicles sales in the U.S. in 2018.
