Electric vehicle sales are expected to soar.
The shift to electric vehicles will represent one of the biggest changes in the economy over the next several decades. While EVs represent only about 3 percent market share today, Energias Market Research estimates the EV market will grow by 23.9 percent annually over the next five years. According to Boston Consulting Group, EV market share will be 28 percent by 2030 and continue to rise in the longer term. Here are seven public companies with the early lead in the U.S. EV market, according to CleanTechnica and EV Obsession.
Tesla (ticker: TSLA)
It should come as no surprise that Tesla is leading the way in U.S. EV sales, but the extent of its dominance is impressive. In the third quarter, the Model 3, Model S and Model X were the three best-selling U.S. EV models in the market, accounting for a combined 69,540 vehicle sales. Not only did those numbers outpace the competition, the Model 3 alone (54,540 vehicle sales) outsold all of the other EV models on the market combined. Tesla stock is expensive but its EV dominance is undeniable.
Toyota Motor Corp. (TM)
In a very distant fourth place behind the Tesla Model 3, Model S and Model X, the Toyota Prius hybrid was the closest competition in EV sales in the third quarter, with 6,268 units sold. Toyota has seemingly been faring much better with EV sales in the rest of the world, reporting a total of 1.5 million global EV sales in 2017. The company has said it is working toward a long-term goal of selling 5.5 million EVs per year by 2030 and reached 1.5 million sales three years ahead of schedule.
General Motors Co. (GM)
The Chevrolet Bolt hasn’t been the Model 3 killer the company may have hoped. The Bolt won the coveted Motor Trend Car of the Year award in 2017, but U.S. sales have slumped in 2018, falling to just 3,949 in the third quarter. General Motors says the decline is due to the company shifting its attention to international markets like Canada and South Korea. The hybrid Chevy Volt, which has a fully electric range of about 50 miles, was GM’s best-selling EV in the third quarter with 5,429 units sold.
Honda Motor Co. (HMC)
Honda had both versions of its Clarity model crack the U.S. top 10 sales list in the third quarter. The plug-in hybrid version, which has a fully electric range of 47 miles, sold 5,298 units in the quarter, and the fully electric version sold another 200 units. Like Toyota, Honda also has an aggressive long-term EV strategy, which includes goals of 15 percent EV sales and 50 percent hybrid sales by 2030. Honda also hopes to reduce its total carbon dioxide emissions by 50 percent from 2000 to 2050.
BMW (BMWYY)
BMW sold a total of 6,230 EV and plug-in hybrid vehicles in the U.S. in the third quarter, including 1,938 units of the BMW i3. BMW sold more than 60,000 EVs globally in 2017 and expects to report full-year EV sales growth in the double digits again in 2018. Last year, BMW said it is hoping to reach 500,000 in total EV sales by 2020 and plans to release 12 different all-electric models by 2025. BMW unveiled the iX3 in April, which is a fully electric version of its popular X3 crossover model.
Nissan Motor Co. (NSANY)
Nissan Leaf was an EV pioneer, first hitting the roadways in 2010. In the third quarter, the Leaf sold 4,027 units in the U.S. market, and Nissan has reportedly now sold a total of more than 350,000 Leafs worldwide. That running sales total makes the Leaf the best-selling highway-capable fully electric vehicle in history. Earlier this year, Nissan said it will launch eight new models as part of its goal to reach 1 million fully-electric and hybrid sales per year by 2022.
Ford Motor Co. (F)
Ford has taken some heat from investors in recent years for falling behind while the rest of the industry innovates with autonomous and electric vehicle technology. Ford stock has dropped 44 percent in the past five years as a result of its missteps, but the company has now committed $11 billion to developing 40 hybrid and fully electric vehicle models by 2022. In the third quarter, the Ford Fusion Energi sold 1,398 units in the U.S., the Ford Focus Electric sold 57 units and the Ford C-Max Energi sold 20 units.
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