What Is the Percentage of Electric Cars in the U.S.?

Who has the most EV market share?

2023 Kia EV6 - Action Front 3/4
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  • (updated 7/3/2024)

The electric vehicle market share in the U.S. (expressed as a percentage) varies based on the metric you're looking at and your definition of an EV. If we're talking about new vehicle sales, the percentage of electric cars in the U.S. was 6.8% in May 2024, according to Edmunds sales data. This is an improvement of 1.6 percentage points from 2022. Our EV market share figure does not include plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs), which we measured separately and had its own market share of 1.7% in May 2024. EVs and PHEVs combined made up 8.5% of the vehicles sold in May 2024, which is still far from the 82.4% of gas-powered vehicles sold in that same month.

Note: This article primarily focuses on percentages, but we have a companion article, How Many Electric Cars Are There in the U.S.?, that goes into more detail about that subject, along with sales numbers and state-by-state breakdowns of EVs on the road. 

These percentages only provide a small glimpse into the current state of the electric car market and leave a few questions unanswered. Let's examine each of these questions to understand better what's happening in the EV market.

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What percentage of electric cars are on U.S. roads?

Looking at a broader perspective, in the first quarter of 2024, 7.9% of all new car registrations were for electric vehicles, according to Experian Automotive's Market Trends report. This is a slight decrease of 0.3% from the previous quarter.

If we fly up higher to a bird's-eye view of the roughly 286 million cars on the road in 2023, with model years dating back to 2001, 9.3% of those were electric vehicles, which was a record high, according to Experian.

EV market share by company

Here are the latest EV market share percentages, going back to 2019, according to Edmunds data. Tesla has enjoyed a comfortable lead with the highest market share over the past five years. In recent years, however, Tesla's market share has dwindled from nearly 80% in 2019 to about 52% in June 2024 as other automakers entered the playing field and introduced more competition for customers to choose from. Ford maintains a distant second place in market share (8.2%), while Hyundai (5.4%) is in third but has made significant progress in just a few years. Mercedes-Benz (4.6%) and Rivian (4.2%) round out the top five currently, but these could easily switch places as the year goes on.

Electric car market share by company

Make
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024 Jan-May
Tesla79.90%76.60%66.20%58.60%56.20%52.30%
Ford0.00%0.00%7.00%8.60%6.70%8.20%
Hyundai0.60%2.90%2.80%4.80%5.00%5.40%
Mercedes-Benz0.00%0.00%0.00%1.30%3.90%4.60%
Rivian0.00%0.00%0.10%3.50%3.80%4.20%
Kia0.50%1.30%1.60%5.00%2.30%4.10%
Chevrolet7.30%8.90%6.40%5.30%5.80%3.30%
Cadillac0.00%0.00%0.00%0.00%0.80%2.40%
BMW0.00%0.00%0.00%1.10%1.80%2.30%
Volkswagen2.20%0.30%4.30%2.90%3.50%2.20%
Nissan5.50%4.10%3.70%1.70%1.90%2.20%
Toyota0.00%0.00%0.00%0.20%0.90%1.80%
Audi2.40%3.00%3.40%2.20%2.00%1.40%
Lexus0.00%0.00%0.00%0.00%0.50%1.00%
Subaru0.00%0.00%0.00%0.10%0.80%0.90%
GMC0.00%0.00%0.00%0.10%0.30%0.80%
Volvo0.00%0.00%1.10%1.10%1.10%0.70%
Genesis0.00%0.00%0.00%0.20%0.60%0.60%
Porsche0.10%2.00%2.20%1.20%0.70%0.60%
Lucid0.00%0.00%0.00%0.60%0.50%0.40%
Polestar0.00%0.00%0.80%1.30%0.60%0.30%

Source: Edmunds sales data as of June 6, 2024

What are the best-selling electric cars in the U.S. by percentage?

Although Tesla's market share has been falling, the electric carmaker still dominates the market. According to Experian Automotive, the Tesla Model Y was the best-selling electric car in the first quarter of 2024, making up 39.3% of new EVs sold. The Model 3 was second with 11.9%. The Tesla Model X came in third with 3.7%, and the Rivian R1S and Volkswagen ID.4 held fourth and fifth place with 3% of sales each.

  1. Tesla Model Y (39.3%)

  2. Tesla Model 3 (11.9%)

  3. Tesla Model X (3.7%)

  4. Rivian R1S (3%)

  5. Volkswagen ID.4 (3%)

  6. Ford Mustang Mach-E (2.9%)

  7. Chevrolet Bolt EUV (2.6%)

  8. Ford F-150 Lightning (2.4%)

  9. Hyundai Ioniq 5 (2.3%)

  10. Cadillac Lyriq (2.1%)

EV market share percentage by state (2023)

California and Washington, D.C., had the highest percentage share of electric vehicles in 2023, according to a report from the Alliance for Automotive Information. We know the District of Columbia isn't a state, but the market share of EVs in that territory (19.6%) is hard to ignore. Washington state (18.8%), Oregon (15.4%), and Colorado (15.1%) round out the top five states. Take a look at the following list to see what your state's EV market share is. The figures below were rounded to the nearest tenth.

EV market share in all 50 states

California 26%Missouri 6%
District of Columbia 19.6%New Hampshire 4.9%
Washington 18.8%New Mexico 4.9%
Oregon 15.4%Tennessee 4.9%
Colorado 15.1%Kansas 4.8%
New Jersey 13.6%Idaho 4.8%
Nevada 13.2%Oklahoma 4.7%
Massachusetts 12%Wisconsin 4.3%
Maryland 11.7%Ohio 4.2%
Hawaii 11%Indiana 4.1%
Vermont 10.3%Michigan 4%
Connecticut 10.1%South Carolina 3.9%
Virginia 9.7%Nebraska 3.7%
Arizona 9.4%Alaska 3.6%
New York 9%Montana 3.4%
Delaware 8.8%Kentucky 3.3%
Utah 8.7%Iowa 3.2%
Illinois 7.8%Alabama 2.6%
Rhode Island 7.8%Arkansas 2.3
Florida 7.4%South Dakota 2.1%
Georgia 7.4%Wyoming 2.1%
North Carolina 7%Louisiana 2%
Minnesota 6.4%West Virginia 1.8%
Pennsylvania 6.3%Mississippi 1.5%
Texas 6.2%North Dakota 1.3%
Maine 6.1%

Source: Alliance for Automotive Information

Edmunds says

EVs are still rare in most parts of the country, but their numbers are predicted to grow. This is due to the increasing availability of electric models in the coming years, the expected drop in EV prices, an increase in the number of EVs that qualify for government incentives, and the continued expansion of the national public charging infrastructure.

Ronald Montoyaby

Ronald Montoya has worked in the automotive industry since 2008. He has written over a thousand car related articles and bought and sold over 100 vehicles over the course of his career. Ronald is a senior consumer advice editor and content strategy at Edmunds and has also contributed to the Associated Press. He has also been featured on ABC, NBC and NPR on a number of car shopping topics. He got his start in the auto industry by taking a part-time job at a car dealership, where he worked in the service and accounting department.

Steven Ewingedited by

Steven Ewing has worked in the automotive industry since 2003. In that time, he's written thousands of articles and tested just as many vehicles. Steven is Edmunds' director of editorial content and has previously been on staff at Winding Road magazine, Autoblog, Motor1.com, CNET, and was the U.S. correspondent for Top Gear magazine. Steven has also contributed to Automobile magazine, Car and Driver, The Drive, Jalopnik, Porsche Panorama, and dozens of other publications. In his spare time, Steven loves to play the drums, cook, and drive his 1999 BMW M Roadster to local punk shows.

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