California surpassed 1 million electric vehicles (1,054,095 units)—battery-electric, plug-in hybrid, and fuel-cell electric—sold cumulatively through the 4th quarter of 2021, according to the California Energy Commission (CEC), making it the first US state to achieve this milestone. California also set a new yearly record with 250,279 electric vehicles sold, representing 12.4% of total California auto sales in 2021.
The CEC updates its Zero Emission Vehicles (ZEV) sales figures quarterly by analyzing DMV data. Specifically, cumulative sales through the end of 2021 were:
663,014 BEV (62.9%)
379,125 PHEV (36% )
11,956 FCEV (1.1%)
For sales in 2021 only, the shares were:
183,933 BEV (73.5%)
63,141 PHEV (25.2%)
3,205 FCEV (1.3%)
California’s EV adoption rate exceeds the global trends according to the International Energy Agency showing that the global EV market share jumped from 4.11% in 2020 to 8.57% in 2021. However, the same report finds that California is still falling behind Europe where EV sales exceeded 20%.
In comparison, EVs delivered as a percent of total US sales in 2021 totaled just 4%. In the US overall, more than 652,000 electric cars and plug-in hybrids were sold in 2021.
Californians need to purchase 4 million more EVs in the next 9 years to reach the state’s goal of 5 million EVs sold by 2030, according to Veloz research. Veloz is a nonprofit organization focused on accelerating the adoption of electric vehicles. . . .
In California, Tesla topped the BEV sales leaderboard for 2021, delivering 137,135 vehicles (75% of all battery-electric vehicles sold in California in 2021) (67,262 Model 3 (49% of Tesla total); 61,022 Model Y (44.5%); 6,532 Model S (4.8%); 2,319 Model X (1.7%)). . . .
For 2021 in California, Tesla was followed by:
Chevrolet: 12,313 Bolt EVs, 974 Bolt EUVs (7.2% share)
Ford: 5,807 Mustang Mach-E, 18 Focus EV (3.2%)
Volkswagen: 5,293 ID.4, 276 e-Golf (3.0%)
Nissan: 4,192 LEAF (2.3%)
Hyundai: 3,122 Kona EV, 686 Ioniq Electric (2.1%)
Audi: 2,404 e-tron, 557 e-tron Sportback, 150 e-tron GT, 66 RS e-tron GT (1.7%)
Kia: 3,003 Niro EV, 2 Soul EV (1.6%)
Porsche: 2,350 Taycan (1.3% )
Volvo: 1,325 XC40, 1 C40 (0.7%)
BMW: 1,286 i3 (0.7%)
Polestar: 1,159 Polestar 2 (0.6%)
Jaguar, MINI, Rivian, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Lucid, Honda, FIAT and Smart each posted less than 1,000 units for the year, with Smart taking the bottom spot with 5 units total.