AAI Says Americans Bought 1.4 Million Electric Vehicles in 2023

• Most sources quoted 2023 US EV sales of about 1.1 million, but the Alliance for Automotive Innovation estimates American consumers bought more than 1.4 million electric vehicles in 2023.

• AAI counts 4.3 million EVs on US roads, by registration, or 1.5% of all light-duty vehicles in operation. There are a total of 159,842 public chargers in the US, AAI says.

• Nationwide, there were 159,842 charging ports in 60,065 locations as of March 12 this year, including 24,644 Tesla and 14,379 CCS Combo fast chargers, AAI says.

American consumers bought more than 1.4 million electric vehicles in 2023, according to the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a Washington-based group that lobbies for “cleaner, safer and smarter” transportation.

That represents a sales increase of 51% while the number of publicly available EV chargers rose just 27% last year.

Until now, most sources quoted 2023 US EV sales of 1.1-1.2 million, with Cox Automotive’s January report coming in at that lower number, representing a 46% increase over 2022 EV sales. EV market share was 7.6% of all vehicles sold in ’23, according to Cox.

But according to AAI, last year’s EV market share reached 9.5%, up 2.5 points over 2022. Whatever the number, nearly everybody agrees that lack of public recharging stations is stifling EV adoption in the US.

“Nationwide, 377,383 EVs were registered in Q4 2023, but only 8869 new public chargers (were) added,” AAI says. That comes to just one new port for every 43 new EVs.

AAI counts 4.3 million EVs on US roads, by registration, or 1.5% of all light-duty vehicles in operation. There are a total of 159,842 public chargers in the US, AAI says.

Half of AAI’s members are automakers, including BMW Group, Mercedes-Benz, Ferrari, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Jaguar Land Rover, Kia, Nissan, Stellantis, Toyota, VinFast, Volvo, and Volkswagen (but not Tesla).

The other half include such suppliers and ancillary companies as GM’s Cruise, Robert Bosch, Denso, Harman, Infineon, Panasonic, Qualcomm, and Uber.

Last year, 12% of US counties got no new charging, and 40% of counties added fewer than 10 new charging ports. One-third of new charging ports were installed in 32 counties across the US, while 20% of new charging ports and 21% of new DC Fast charging ports were installed in California.