Plug-in electric car sales in California noticeably increased in 2022, reaching new record levels – both in terms of volume and market share.
According to the California Energy Commission’s data, some 345,818 new zero-emission vehicles (ZEV) were sold last year in California, which is 38 percent more than a year ago and 138 percent more than in 2020.
*Zero-emission vehicles (ZEV) are battery-electric vehicles (BEV) or hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (FCV), but the California Energy Commission also includes in the number plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEV), which are zero-emission only in the EV mode.
The 345,818 ZEVs accounted for 18.8 percent of the total number of 1,835,429 light-duty vehicle sales in 2022. It means nearly one in five new cars.
California continues to be the largest market for ZEV vehicles in the United States, with a share of 40 percent.
If we take a look into the details, it turns out that some 343,244 plug-in cars (BEVs and PHEVs) were sold in 2022, while hydrogen cars noted just 2,574 units.
Plug-in car sales in California in 2022:
- BEVs: 292,496
- PHEVs 50,748
- FCVs: 2,574
- Total: 345,818 (up 38% year-over-year) and 18.8% share
Cumulatively, more than 1,385,000 plug-in cars were sold within the state (the level of 1 million units was surpassed in early 2022).
Simultaneously, the cumulative number of installed charging points (public and shared private, of various types) exceeded 80,000.
Cumulative Plug-in car sales in California:
- BEVs: 955,510
- PHEVs 429,873
- FCVs: 14,530
- Total: 1,399,913
In terms of models, the two most popular ones were the Tesla Model 3 (94,683) and Tesla Model Y (93,872). Overall Tesla noted 212,586 units (four models), which is 72.7 percent of all BEVs.
The other popular models were the Chevrolet Bolt EV/EUV duo (12,710), Ford Mustang Mach-E (9,860) and Hyundai Ioniq 5 (7,519). A very interesting thing is that next is the Jeep Wrangler 4xe (6,936), which happened to be the top PHEV, slightly ahead of the Toyota Prius Prime.
Top plug-in car models in California in 2022 (above 5,000 units):
- Tesla Model 3: 94,683
- Tesla Model Y: 93,872
- Tesla Model X: 13,319
- Tesla Model S: 10,712
- Chevrolet Bolt EV/Bolt EUV: 12,710 (8,709 Bolt EUV and 4,001 Bolt EV)
- Ford Mustang Mach-E: 9,860
- Hyundai Ioniq 5: 7,519
- Jeep Wrangler 4xe: 6,936
- Toyota Prius Prime: 6,711
- Volkswagen ID.4: 5,089
