Ford, GM, Google, and solar providers unite to showcase the full potential of electric vehicles
In a revolutionary partnership, Ford, General Motors, Google, SunPower, and Sunrun are teaming up to highlight the additional benefits electric vehicles offer beyond producing zero emissions.
Electric vehicles are rolling out at a record pace as consumers’ preference for zero-emission electric cars soars. Nearly every automaker – new and legacy – is selling electric vehicles as fast as they are making them, with most experiencing significant backlogs.
Why is this? Research has shown that pure EVs are better for the environment with zero tailpipe emissions.
The enhanced driving experience also captures new EV drivers, leaving them to never look at a gas-powered vehicle the same. With instant acceleration and a smooth ride, it’s no wonder people are switching to electric vehicles at a historic rate.
Meanwhile, electric vehicles offer more than just a thrilling, zero-emission drive experience. EVs can essentially serve as backup energy sources with large, powerful batteries.
Contrary to what many claim, EVs can help stabilize the energy grid. Some automakers offer bidirectional charging capabilities or vehicle-to-grid (V2G), allowing energy to be sent from the EVs battery to the grid and vice versa.
Other companies have teamed up to take this idea a step further in what’s called a virtual power plant (VPP). VPPs use the concept of “V2G” on a mass scale, drawing from many EVs and other clean energy devices.
When combined with other clean energy assets like solar energy or smart controlled electric heaters, the results can be multiplied. By drawing power from these clean energy devices during peak electricity demand, users can save money on energy costs and even more with incentives from utility providers.
RMI, a nonprofit organization focusing on accelerating the clean energy transition, in a press release Tuesday, announced it would host the Virtual Power Plant Partnership (VP3).
VP3 works to shape policy to support scaling VPPs, helping to advance affordable, reliable electric sector decarbonization.
VPPs are poised for explosive growth this year after new incentives from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) make these clean energy devices (like electric vehicles and solar energy panels) more affordable.
Mark Bole, GM’s VP and head of V2X and battery solutions, said:
Virtual power plants present an exciting opportunity to unlock additional value for homes, businesses and communities, helping to drive greater energy independence and grid decarbonization.
By 2030, VPPs can reduce peak power demand in the US by 60 gigawatts (GW), lowering annual power sector costs by $17 billion, according to RMI. The VP3 partners, including Ford, GM, Google, Sunrun, SunPower, and others, will focus on documenting the benefits, developing best practices, and shaping policy development to promote VPP use going forward.
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EV sales kept up their momentum in December 2024, with incentives playing a big role, according to the latest Cox Automotive’s Kelley Blue Book report.
December’s strong EV sales saw an average transaction price (ATP) of $55,544, which helped push the industry-wide ATP higher, according to Kelley Blue Book. The December ATP for an EV was higher year-over-year by 0.8%, slightly below the industry average, and higher month-over-month by 1.1%. Tesla ATPs were higher year-over-year by 10.5%.
Incentives for EVs remained elevated in December, although they were slightly lower month-over-month at 14.3% of ATP, down from 14.7% in November.
EV incentives were higher by an impressive 41% year-over-year and have been above 12% of ATP for six consecutive months. Strong sales incentives, which averaged more than $6,700 per sale in 2024, were one reason EV sales surpassed 1.3 million units last year, according to Cox Automotive, a new record for volume and share.
(My colleague Jameson Dow reported yesterday, “In 2024, the world sold 3.5 million more EVs than it did in the previous year … This increase is larger than the 3.2 million increase in EV sales from the previous year – meaning that EV sales aren’t just up, but that the rate of growth is itself increasing.”)
Kelley Blue Book estimated that in December, approximately 84,000 vehicles – or 5.6% of total sales – transacted at prices higher than $80,000 – the highest volume ever. KBB lumps gas cars and EVs together into this luxury vehicle category, so this is where Tesla Cybertruck is slotted.
However, Tesla bundles sales figures of Cybertruck with Model S, Model X, and Tesla Semi(!) into a category it calls “other models,” so we don’t know for sure exactly how many Cybertrucks Tesla sold in Q4, much less in December. However, Electrek‘s Fred Lambert estimates between 9,000 and 12,000 Cybertrucks were sold in Q4, and that’s not a stellar sales figure.
What will January bring when it comes to EV ATPs? What about tax credits? Check back in a month and I’ll fill you in.
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Tesla is now claiming that Cybertruck was the ‘best-selling electric pickup in US’ last year despite not even reporting the number of deliveries.
There’s a lot of context needed here.
As we often highlighted, Tesla is sadly one of, if not the most, opaque automakers regarding sales reports.
Tesla doesn’t break down sales per model or even region.
For comparison, here’s Ford’s Q4 2024 sales report compared to Tesla’s:
You could argue that Tesla has fewer models than Ford, and that’s true, but Tesla’s report literally has two lines despite having six different models.
There’s no reason not to offer a complete breakdown like all other automakers other than trying to make it hard to verify the health of each vehicle program.
This has been the case with the Cybertruck. Tesla is bundling its Cybertruck deliveries with Model S, Model X, and Tesla Semi deliveries.
Despite this lack of disclosure, Tesla has been able to claim that the Cybertruck has become “the best-selling electric pickup truck” in the US in 2024:
It very well might be true. Ford disclosed 33,510 F-150 Lightning truck deliveries in the US in 2024 while most estimates are putting Cybertruck deliveries at around 40,000 units.
Those are global deliveries, but Tesla only delivered the Cybertruck in the US, Canada, and Mexico in 2024, and most of the deliveries are believed to be in the US.
However, there’s essential context needed here, as we highlighted in our recent ‘Tesla Cybertruck sales are disastrous‘ article.
First off, Tesla had a backlog of over 1 million reservations for the Cybertruck that it has been building since 2019. This led many to believe Tesla already had years of demand baked in for the truck and that production would be the constraint.
However, based on estimates, again, because Tesla refuses to disclose the data, Cybertruck deliveries were either flat or down in Q4 versus Q3 despite Tesla introducing cheaper versions of the vehicle and ramping up production.
Again, that’s after just about 40,000 deliveries.
Furthermore, with almost 11,000 deliveries in Q4 in the US, Ford more likely than not outsold Cybertruck with the F-150 Lightning in Q4.
Electrek’s Take
Tesla is in damage control here. There’s no doubt that it is having issues selling the Cybertruck.
Inventory is full of Cybertrucks and Tesla is now discounting them and offering free lifetime Supercharging.
Tesla is great at ramping up production, and it’s clear the Cybertruck is not production-constrained anymore. It is demand-constrained despite having over 1 million reservations.
Again, those reservations were made before Tesla unveiled the production version, which happened to have less range and cost significantly more.
The upcoming cheaper single motor version should help with demand, but I have serious doubts Tesla can ramp this program up to more than 100,000 units in the US.
As a reminder, Tesla installed a production capacity of 250,000 units annually and Musk said he could see Tesla selling 500,000 Cybertrucks per year.
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