Updated Registration Counts for EV Makes and Models

Updated Vehicle Counts Released by DMV

The Department of Motor Vehicles has released its semi-annual update of EV counts that carries us through the end of last year. There were a total of 44,313 vehicles registered, up 47% from one year ago. Of these, 43,868 are BEV or PHEV. The detail for the remainder are not reported. Based on historical data, the biggest piece of the unreported vehicles would be electric motorcycles. There are a few fuel-cell vehicles in the state, less than the fingers of one hand. And, most likely, some blank records.

At the moment, we are working with pieces of the picture. We plan to update the dashboard when we get the complete file.

BEVs Continue to Dominate the Market

Tesla Now Has 16,686 registrations

As can be seen in the photo at the top, Tesla continues to be the dominant brand, with Toyota a distant second. Chevrolet is a very distant second when it comes to BEVs. Below are the top 10 makes with values.

This is the comparison when filtered for only Battery Electric Vehicles.

And top 10 BEV makes with values.

This is the comparison for PHEVs.

And top 10 PHEV makes with values.

Below are the major brands with the individual models displayed, ranked most to least registrations. There is a long tail of brands and the small ones are omitted.

Tesla

The Model 3 still leads due to the installed base, but the gap is narrowing as the Model Y has become the company’s best-selling model. No Cybertrucks were registered as of the end of last year.

There were 6029 new Tesla registrations in 2023. That means there was turnover of 1620 vehicles to get to the new net registration figure of 16,686.

Toyota

Toyota has moved into second position on the strength of its mostly PHEV lineup. The new BEV, the BZ4X, is off to a slow start. There are still a couple of the BEV version of the RAV4 around. This was strictly a compliance car and was discontinued years ago. Somehow a couple made it here even though it was only sold in California.

Stellantis

They have a strong seller in the PHEV Jeep Wrangler. The Fiat 500 is the only BEV.

Chevrolet

Chevy places fourth due to the temporarily discontinued Bolt and the legacy Volt. Bolt sales had been trending upward since the release of the EUV version of the vehicle. Then they had an extensive recall. Sales picked up again as they got through it, but GM canceled it. After public backlash, they uncanceled it and it is now expected to return as a 2025 model year vehicle, using the company’s new Ultium platform. Ultium in general has experienced delays, reportedly due to software difficulties.

Hyundai

Hyundai follows, largely on the strength of the Ioniq 5 and early signs of life from the Ioniq 6.

Ford

After strong starts, the company has had disappointing sales of its F-150 Lightning pickup and Mustang Mach-E.

BMW

The largest of the legacy luxury brands and the final make with over 2,000 registrations.

Volvo

Kia

Nissan

Volkswagen

Audi

 

Rivian

Note the electric delivery vans for Amazon.

Porsche

Subaru

Honda

These are legacy registrations of no longer for sale vehicles. The company has a new BEV, the Prologue SUV, projected to arrive in the next few months.

Mercedes

Mercedes continues the be the laggard among major luxury brands, far behind BMW. Surprising, given the company’s long history of engineering excellence and many announcements about pivoting aggressively to electric.

Mitsubishi

Mini

Polestar

The Polestar 1 was a high-performance PHEV sports car, imported in limited quantity. There are reports of a corporate restructuring with slow sales of the Polestar 2, introduced roughly 3 years ago. Possibly, it will carry the parent Geely brand. Anyway, the website continues to be business as usual as they are taking orders for the launch edition of the Polestar 3 SUV and have announced a Polestar 4 performance sedan.

Mazda

Lucid

Jaguar and Land Rover

These marques were sold by Ford to the Indian company, Tata. Coming soon is the new Jaguar Electric Architecture. The company plans to transition to 100% electric by 2025! Most Jaguar ICE vehicles will reportedly end production around the middle of this year.

Cadillac

Cadillac, like Chevy, is also waiting with bated breath for GM to scale Ultium.