California reached 16% EV adoption in 2022

California has surpassed yet another milestone on its way to mainstream electric vehicle adoption. And while Tesla remains the pioneer in the sector and the primary contributor to mainstream EV adoption, increasing competition is also pushing more consumers to buy electric.

Above: Tesla Model S units lined up in a parking lot (Image: Casey Murphy / EVANNEX).

EV sales made up 16 percent of new vehicle sales in California in 2022, with a total of 292,496 battery-electric vehicles hitting the state’s roads, according to data from the California Energy Commission (CEC) as detailed by Green Car Reports. Additionally, there were 50,748 plug-in hybrids and 2,574 fuel-cell vehicles sold during the year.

The year also marked a decline for Tesla’s EV market share, dropping from 78 percent in Q1. This indicates increasing competition from other automakers as the industry shifts toward EVs. Despite stoking concerns of market share decline from some shareholders, however, the larger picture of mass EV adoption is something Tesla itself has vouched for — and something it has caused through its disruption of the auto industry.

Still, Tesla retained its dominant market share in California’s growing EV sector last year by a wide margin, selling a total of 212,586 vehicles. This figure represented 73 percent market share out of all EVs sold in California in 2022, with the Model 3 leading the pack.

In California last year, Tesla sold 94,683 Model 3 units, 93,872 Model Y units, 13,319 Model X units and 10,712 Model S units.

Following Tesla, no top EV sellers surpassed 10,000 units in the state, though notable vehicles included, in order of sales figures, the Chevy Bolt EV and EUV (4,001 and 8,709, respectively), the Ford Mustang Mach-E (9,860) and the Hyundai Ioniq 5 (7,519).

The news also comes as an important milestone in California’s gas car sales ban, set to apply to all new cars sold by 2035. Other states and government entities like New York, Washington, Colorado, New Jersey and even Canada have expressed hopes to follow California’s lead on the initiative, proposing similar bans on gas sales by 2035.

California first surpassed 15 percent EV sales in the larger market around mid-2022, just months before officially approving its plan to ban new gas car sales by 2035. To do so, the state plans to gradually phase out the sale of gas cars over the next dozen years. To reach its goal of 100 percent EV sales on new cars by 2035, California EV sales will need to reach 35 percent by 2026, 51 percent by 2028, and 68 percent by 2030, according to the plan.

In the next three years, then, we can expect EV sales to jump by almost 20 percent from their current levels in California — suggesting that a lot more Teslas and other EVs may be hitting the road soon.

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