New report from Motor Intelligence details monthly US EV sales

Back in the early days of the rEVolution, we used to get a detailed monthly report on EV sales, courtesy of InsideEVs, which painstakingly combed through sales figures provided by automakers, and used some educated guessing to make estimates for brands that refused to provide any data (ahem…Tesla). However, for whatever reason, many automakers stopped making the monthly sales data available, and InsideEVs eventually gave up the valiant effort.

Of course, monthly figures are not a reliable indicator of sales trends—sales of a particular model can bob up and down from one month to another for many reasons, so if you want to get an idea of which models are hits, and which automakers are serious about selling their EVs, you need to zoom out to the quarterly or yearly level. However, over time there are some insights to be gleaned from the monthly figures, so we’re glad to see that Motor Intelligence has taken up the gauntlet, and is now offering a report on monthly US EV sales.

This is an exciting time for EV buyers, as a number of promising new models are coming to market, or will very soon. Some interesting things happened in February.

Tesla continues to dominate the EV market, and has been steadily increasing sales in spite of the industry-wide issues of the last few months. The company sold 42,742 EVs in February 2022, a 98% increase from February 2021. Model Y was the top seller with 23,508 units, followed by Model 3 (15,387), Model X (2,137) and Model S (1,710).

Hyundai’s new Ioniq 5 is coming on strong—it sold 2,555 units in February, as sales of the outgoing Ioniq EV and Kona EV are fading away. Sister company Kia also sold respectable numbers of the electric Niro (1,180) and the new EV6 (2,125).

Ford is starting to deliver its new E-Transit van (52 sold in February) and F-150 Lightning pickup (43 units). The Mustang Mach-E sold a respectable 2,001.

The Nissan LEAF is still selling in respectable numbers—it moved 1,451 units in February, a 58% increase from a year ago. US deliveries of the new Ariya have been postponed to fall 2022.

Chevrolet is struggling to return to the EV game after a six-month shutdown of the Bolt production line to fix battery problems. Only 15 Bolt EVs and 47 Bolt EUVs were sold in February. Production of the two EVs at GM’s Orion Township, Michigan assembly plant is to resume in April.

BrightDrop, GM’s new commercial EV venture, sold 13 EV600 vans in February, the model’s first month of availability. GM says it has some 25,000 reservations for the BrightDrop EV600 and EV410 vans.

Here come the startups! Lucid sold 135 Air EVs, and Rivian retailed 238 EVs in February, including 215 R1T pickup trucks, 15 R1S SUVs and 8 EDV700 vans. Polestar peddled 420 Polestar 2 EVs in February. And yes, after years of hype, Karma is beginning to deliver vehicles—12 GS-6 models and 9 Reveros in February.

Porsche made history last year with the news that its Taycan EV outsold the iconic 911 (though the Macan and Cayenne SUVs outsold both by a huge margin). More recently, the Taycan’s triumph has been tarnished—it sold 340 unitsin February, down 49% from last year’s figure.

Volkswagen aspires to be one of the world’s top EV brands, but it’s just getting things rolling in the US—1,027 ID.4s were sold in February. The brand is creating quite a buzz about the ID. Buzz EV, which is expected to hit Europe this fall. There’s no word yet on when the electric bus will come to the US.

Volvo sold 558 EVs in February, including the XC40 Recharge (397 units) and the new C40 (159).

Mercedes-Benz is slowly dipping its corporate toe into the electric pool—it sold 112 EQS-Class EVs in February.

Audi is still in the EV game—it sold 1,001 of the three different versions of the e-tron in February. Jaguar and BMW are not—the former sold a measly 56 I-Paces, while the latter sold one lonely i3. MINI is doing a little better—it sold 288 MINI EVs and 117 MINI Cooper SE EVs in February.

Source: Motor Intelligence