The global electric vehicle market took a hit in the first quarter of 2024, and this was also evident in manufacturers’ Q1 sales numbers. Q1 2024 US EV sales were still up year-over-year, but only by 2.6%, while the EV share out of the total number of vehicles sold dropped 7.3% compared to Q4 2023.
Tesla felt the slowdown and was not able to deliver all the cars it built in this year’s first quarter, but its Model Y crossover was still the most popular EV in the US by far. Americans bought 268,909 EVs in Q1 2024, and over one-third were Tesla Model Ys, or 96,729 examples, making it a clear sales leader.
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Slowdown or no slowdown, Tesla sells a lot more EVs than everyone else
The fact that Tesla couldn't deliver 47,000 of the EVs it built in Q1 2024 is a sign of greater market trends, but it still delivered an impressive nearly 386,810 vehicles globally.
The EV sales data published by Kelley Blue Book's parent company Cox Automotive reveals that even despite the EV market slowdown, the Model Y still recorded a 1.4% Q1 sales increase year-over-year, while its lower, cheaper brother, the Model 3, saw a 43.9% decrease. Tesla’s smallest sedan sold 30,842 vehicles this past quarter, considerably down on Q1 2023, when almost 55,000 units were sold.
Model Y sales accounted for a 35.4% share of the entire US EV market in Q1, followed by Model 3 with 11.3%. In third place was the Ford Mustang Mach-E, which sold 9,589 vehicles and gained a 3.5% share. That’s up 77.3% compared to its Q1 2023 numbers. It’s followed by the Rivian R1S with 8,017 sales and a market share of 2.9%.
Next came another Ford, the F-150 Lightning, which sold 7,743 units in Q1 2024 for a 2.8% market share and an 80.4% Q1 increase year-over-year. Ford had a very good Q1 2024 and things seem to be looking up for the rest of the year too.
One of the lowest-selling EVs was the Genesis G80 Electrified. It only moved 104 units, which is 72.6% down year-over-year compared to the 380 examples sold in Q1 2023. Honda delivered 19 Prologues and there was even a new BMW i3 sale, even though the model was officially discontinued in July 2022 and now makes for a temptingly affordable second-hand buy.
