Rivian (RIVN) and Hyundai see US EV registration growth in January, outpacing rivals
EV registrations were up 15% in the US in January. Although Ford and GM’s EV registrations slipped, Rivian (RIVN) and Hyundai saw some of the biggest growth.
Tesla still leads the pack
Electric vehicles accounted for 7.8% of new US light-vehicle registrations in January, up from 7.1% in Jan 2022. That’s also up from 7.7% in 2023.
According to S&P Global Mobility registration data (via Automotive News), the growth was uneven across the competition.
The data is significant as not all automakers release monthly sales numbers. Tesla’s registrations were up 15%, in line with the average, at 48,757. Model 3 registrations were down 23% after losing the $7,500 EV tax credit. Tesla also launched an updated model.
Tesla’s best-selling Model Y had 11,739 registrations in January, up 35% YOY. The Model X (+32%) and Model S (+68%) both had YOY growth. After launching in November, the long-awaited Tesla Cybertruck had 72 registrations.
Rivian and Hyundai were among the leaders in EV registration growth. Rivian’s R1S led the growth while Hyundai’s IONIQ 5 picked up the pace.
Hyundai, Rivian see EV registration growth in January
Meanwhile, Ford and Chevy had fewer registrations than the year before. Mustang Mach-E registrations fell 38% (1,977), while the F-150 Lightning gained 4.5% YOY( 2,956). The F-150 Lightning topped Rivian’s R1T for the best-selling electric pickup title.
GM’s Chevy was third with EV 4,353 registrations. After ending production of its best-selling Bolt earlier this year, registrations fell 45% to 4,119. The new Chevy Blazer EV (which is just coming off a stop-sale) and Silverado EV had 234 registrations combined.
Hyundai had a big month with 4,144 EV registrations in Jan, up 79% YOY. The IONIQ 5 had 2,436 registrations (+47% YOY), while the IONIQ 6 had 1,063.
| Place | Automaker | EV registrations in January 2024 |
| 1 | Tesla | 48,757 |
| 2 | Ford | 5,429 |
| 3 | Chevrolet | 4,353 |
| 4 | Hyundai | 4,144 |
| 5 | Rivian | 3,818 |
| 6 | Kia | 3,717 |
| 7 | BMW | 3,564 |
| 8 | Mercedes-Benz | 3,341 |
| 9 | Cadillac | 2,145 |
| 10 | Volkswagen | 1,836 |
With Kia and Genesis included, Hyundai Motor topped Ford and Chevy with 8,262 registrations in January.
EV startup Rivian trended higher, placing fifth, with 3,818 registrations. Despite R1T numbers slipping 44%, the R1S picked up the slack, with registrations quadrupling.
Kia was sixth after EV registrations more than doubled YOY. Its new three-row EV9 is off to a strong start with 1,361 registrations. The EV6 had 1,338, while the Niro EV had 1,018.
Other automakers, including BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Cadillac, saw EV registration growth in January. Meanwhile, registrations of Volkswagen sole ID.4 fell 47%.
With many automakers fighting for the same segment in mid-size electric SUVs, several have introduced significant deals to undercut the competition. For example, Hyundai is offering 0% APR on the 2024 IONIQ 5. The offer could amount to up to $7,800 in savings compared to a same-priced Tesla.
Volkswagen announced a $13,000 lease deal on the 2023 ID.4 AWD Pro S Plus as it makes room for new models.
Despite strong early demand, Kia is already offering a $5,000 customer cash offer on its first three-row electric SUV, the EV9.
With new models like the Volvo EX30, Fiat 500e, Honda Prologue, Chevy Equinox EV, and others rolling out this year, it will be interesting to see how the rankings turn out over the next few months.
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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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