The San Francisco metropolitan area has set a new record in the United States for the number of all-electric and hybrid vehicle registrations, according to Automotive News, quoting S&P Global Mobility.
As per the source, battery electric vehicles (BEV) claimed a 34.2 percent market share in the San Francisco area in March, while hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles added 15.8 percent for a total of 50 percent market share. Then, in April, electrified vehicles claimed a record 53.1 percent market share in the SF area, according to S&P.
In the United States as a whole, electric and hybrid vehicles made up 16.1 percent of registrations in March 2023, but the San Francisco area isn’t an outlier, with the metropolitan areas of San Diego, Sacramento, and Los Angeles acting as worthy rivals, writes Automotive News.
S&P says that new-vehicle buyers in the San Francisco area are younger and wealthier than the average in other major US metropolitan areas, with people under 45 and those with household incomes of at least $75,000 buying the most EVs nationally.
In San Francisco’s Los Altos, Saratoga, Piedmont. and Orinda suburbs, almost half of new-vehicle buyers in March had household incomes of over $200,000 and more than three-quarters had household incomes of at least $75,000.
"When you look at the San Francisco buyer in general, it is similar to the EV buyer," said Thomas Libby, a manager with S&P Global Mobility focused on US new and used vehicle industries.
With this being said, it’s worth noting that prices of new electric vehicles have continued to fall in the last 12 months, with Kelley Blue Book indicating that the average transaction price for an EV was $9,370 lower in May 2023 than a year ago.
This is due to the fact that some manufacturers have lowered the starting prices of their battery-powered cars, but also because more people are taking advantage of the federal tax credits, which in turn has encouraged sales of EVs. As a result, EV sales in May are estimated to have increased by 4.7 percent compared to April and are up 44 percent year over year, according to Cox Automotive.
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