The top-10 most popular electric vehicle models sold in the United States over the past three years had total combined unit sales of 568,000 of which approximately 430,000 were Tesla vehicles, according to a recent analysis from BuyAutoInsurance.com. Tesla has never made its numbers public and a variety of organizations have used resources such as registration data to estimate sales with a high degree of accuracy. Assuming the above figures are accurate, the study shows that Tesla accounted for an impressive 74% of total U.S. EV sales over the past three years. Given that slice of the market, it comes as no real surprise that Tesla models dominate the study’s list of America’s best-selling EVs.
During the above period, the Tesla Model 3 was the best-selling EV in the United States by far with estimated unit sales of just under 300,000. The Model 3 was part of the company’s three-step strategy to start with high-price vehicles before progressively moving towards lower-cost models. Its $35,000 price tag made it immensely popular and it surpassed the Chevrolet Volt to become America’s all-time best-selling plug-in electric car in February 2019. In early 2020, the Model 3 surged past the Nissan Leaf to become the world’s all-time best-selling plug-in electric car.
The Tesla Model S and X were virtually tied in second and third place in the study with sales of 67,335 and 67,225 over the past three years, respectively. The Chevrolet Bolt was Tesla’s closest challenger during that period but it came a distant fourth with total sales of 57,629. Elsewhere, the Nissan Leaf came sixth with sales of 38,310 while the BMW i3 was in seventh place with 17,247 units sold. While Tesla vehicles accounted for the vast majority of U.S. EV sales in recent years, the study shows that no other model owned 10% or more of the marketplace.
*Click below to enlarge (charted by Statista)
Total electric vehicle sales by model in the U.S. over the preceeding 3 years.
Statista
