Image: Hyundai
EVs are here to stay and EV-focused brands like Tesla, Polestar and BYD have proven that.
Given the first quarter of 2023 is now over, it is a good time to check in on the sales numbers of some of the top auto brands and how they are doing on the EV transition.
Let’s take a look at Ford, General Motors, Toyota and Hyundai’s efforts so far in 2023. The story is pretty consistent – mostly their EV sales are growing, but still trailing badly behind global trends and the leadership shown by Tesla and BYD.
Ford is one of the largest car makers in the world with big plans to lead the EV race from a traditional car maker’s point of view.
During the first three months, Ford sold a total of 456,972 vehicles and EVs made up just 10,866 of them, or 2.4% of the quarterly sales. They comprised 5,407 Mustang Mach-E, 4,281 Ford F150 Lightning utes and 1,168 Ford E-Transit delivery vans.
Ford has plans to increase EV production of its models quite rapidly. It plans to ramp up the F150 Lightning to 150,000 units by the end of the year. That’s part of the overall plan to reach 2 million EVs by 2026.
Ford has more electric product launches on the way, including the Escape and the Ranger and an electric Ford Explorer for the European market, but it’s unlikely to arrive here in Australia anytime soon.
The first models to reach Australian shores will be the Ford Mustang Mach-E and the E-Transit van. Both are expected to arrive before the end of 2023.
General Motors (GM) sold a total of 603,208 vehicles in the US during the first quarter of 2023. Out of those, 20,670 were pure battery electric vehicles, or 3.4% of the total GM sales.
The make-up of the EV sales included the Chevrolet Bolt which accounted for 19,700 sales followed by 968 for the Cadillac Lyriq. The last model for the tally was the Hummer EV with just 2 sales.
With plans for the brand to be an “EV leader” in the US, it’ll take a lot more effort from the brand to get there.
Car giant Toyota has had several attempts at EVs so far but is yet to gain popularity amongst drivers. Toyota is yet to release its quarterly sales in 2023 but in January the brand sold 709,870 vehicles and in February the sales grew to 773,271.
March sales figures are yet to be released but if it’s in line with March 2022, it will be around 900,000 vehicles, bringing the total quarterly sales to about 2,400,000.
In the US, Toyota sold 401,306 vehicles in the first three months of the year. Of these, only 1,698 were EVs.
Given that Toyota also owns and operates Lexus, the US BEV sales for the luxury brand were 185 out of 68,252 in Q1 2023.
Given Toyota does not have many EV models or sales, it’s unlikely that its pure EV volumes would be greater than Ford’s 10,000 EVs during the first quarter.
Hyundai has been one of the big movers and shakers in the EV space launching multiple compelling EV models over the years.
During the first quarter, Hyundai sold 1,016,489 vehicles, and of these 66,173 battery-electric vehicles, which is more than double that of 2022 and means that 6.5% of all sales were powered by a pure battery electric powertrain.
The Ioniq 5 sold 27,142 EVs in Q1. The Kona Electric came in next at 20,166 units while the newly released Ioniq 6 sales were healthy at 18,865.
In the first quarter, Hyundai’s pure EV model sales made up 592 sales in Australia which is 3.5% of its total 16,682 ICE and EVs sold so far in 2023, which is still behind the 6.6 per cent EV share of the overall market.
In 2023, Hyundai is aiming for sales of 4,320,000 million units globally. Hyundai recently announced its goal to become the third best-selling EV brand in the world by 2030.
Looking at some of the top car manufacturer’s announcements in recent years, many targets have been set to make certain parts of the total sales with a fully electrified powertrain.
Out of the four large brands we have seen Hyundai take the lead EV sales and has set a very ambitious target to get their models electrified by 2030.
Ford is looking to dominate the US EV space in the coming years and GM seems to be making more announcements than putting plans into gear. This could lead many US drivers to make the switch to an EV in a market where EV uptake is at 7.2% so far this year.
Toyota seems to lag in all markets as part of this transition but we hope to see things change in the coming years. Otherwise, the decline in Toyota’s sales will continue for the largest car maker as it aims to deliver a strong hydrogen model rollout strategy when in reality, everyone is moving towards EVs at a pace never seen before in the car industry.
Riz is the founder of carloop based in Melbourne, specialising in Australian EV data, insight reports and trends. He is a mechanical engineer who spent the first 7 years of his career building transport infrastructure before starting carloop. He has a passion for cars, particularly EVs and wants to help reduce transport emissions in Australia. He currently drives a red Tesla Model 3.
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