We’re already into the second quarter of 2023 and now car companies are spilling the beans on their sales numbers for the last 90 days. The biggest news is Tesla’s market share is plummeting, even though they are still the top dog when it comes to selling EVs in the US. With more and more companies bringing out new EVs, Tesla’s piece of the pie is shrinking, from 72% at the start of last year to 54% now, and it might even drop below 50% in a few weeks. We took a peek at the Q1 sales announcements, assess the winners and losers, and bring you the results.

General Motors had a great Q1 this year and they are now the number two seller of EVs in the US.  They sold “more than 20,000 EVs” according to a recent press release. But if you do some digging you’ll find out that most of those sales were from Bolt EV and Bolt EUV models, specifically 19,700 units in the first three months of 2023. That’s way up from Q1 last year when they only sold 358 because they had to take the Bolt off the market for a bit because of battery issues. Nonetheless, Chevy says they are on track to sell 70k Bolts for 2023.

GM delivered almost a thousand Cadillac Lyriq SUVs so far this year, but things aren’t going so great for the Hummer EV. There was some kind of production issue that stopped them from making any from last October until January. The BrightDrop Zevo 600 delivery van got caught up in that too but they’ve started shipping out the first 500 vans they made this year.

Ford is next on the list, having sold 10,866 battery electric vehicles in Q1; representing a 41 percent increase from the previous year. Nearly half of these sales were for the F-150 Lightning pickup and Ford has stated that it is on track to achieve a production rate of 150,000 per year in 2023. The company has not provided a detailed breakdown of Mustang Mach-E and E-Transit sales; however, it has been reported that E-Transit sales increased by 62.7 percent while Mach-E sales decreased due to plant downtime for production changes.

Volkswagen concluded the quarter just behind Ford; selling 9,758 ID.4s – a 254 percent increase from last year – likely aided by local production in Chattanooga reaching full capacity.

Rivian delivered 7,946 electric vehicles in Q1 of this year; representing a 548 percent increase from the same period in 2022. However; it manufactured a total of 9,395 vehicles. Last year, Rivian similarly produced more vehicles than it delivered, with an excess of 4,005 cars at the end of 2022. The company has stated that it has a backlog of orders for the R1S and R1T models extending into next year and has secured a contract to produce 100,000 delivery vans for Amazon.

Volvo sold 7,680 Recharge models between January and March; although this figure is uncertain as the Swedish manufacturer reported overall sales of 26,483 vehicles; stating that 29 percent were battery-electric

BMW sold a total of 6,588 battery-electric vehicles in the first quarter; representing 8 percent of its overall sales. The company offers three electric vehicle models, the i4 sedan; iX SUV, and Mini Cooper SE. However,  its sales breakdown only provides data for the number of iXs sold in 2023, with the i4 included with other 4 Series models and the electric Cooper grouped with other two-door Minis. It is known that BMW sold 2,351 iXs, an increase of 577 percent from the previous year.

Hyundai sold 5,726 Ioniq 5s in Q1 of this year, a decrease of 8 percent from the same period in 2022. The company also delivered 222 newly released Ioniq 6s and reported sales of 19,220 Konas;,although it did not specify how many Kona EV variants were.

Nissan was an early pioneer in the electric vehicle market; however, it has since fallen behind former competitor Chevrolet in terms of sales of affordable electric cars. In Q1 of this year; Nissan sold a total of 5,214 battery electric vehicles, comprised of 2,354 Leafs and 2,860 Ariya crossovers.

Kia sold 3,392 of its highly regarded EV6 model, although this represents a decrease from Q1 of last year when it sold over 5,000 EV6s. Kia does not provide specific data on how many of the 9,827 Niros sold in Q1 were Niro EV variants.

Kia sold 3,392 of its highly regarded EV6 model, although this represents a decrease from Q1 of last year when it sold over 5,000 EV6s. The company does not provide specific data on how many of the 9,827 Niros sold in Q1 were Niro EV variants.

Audi experienced a decrease in sales of its e-tron and e-tron Sportback models, likely due to anticipation of the release of the updated models, now named Q8 e-tron and Q8 e-tron Sportback, which will be available in showrooms this summer. Audi sold 1,053 e-trons, a decrease of 48 percent from last year, and 482 e-tron Sportbacks, a decrease of 26 percent from last year. However; it also sold 1,674 Q4 e-trons and 503 Q4 e-tron Sportbacks within the first three months of this year.

Mazda occupies the final position, having sold only 15 MX-30s in Q1 of this year, representing a decrease from 180 sold in Q1 of last year. This is not entirely unexpected as the MX-30 is only available for purchase in California and has been rated as one of the poorest-performing electric vehicles by most accounts. This represents a significant misstep for an automaker that has previously demonstrated a high level of attention to detail.

Electrified’s Take:  The days of Tesla having the EV market all to itself are over. For Tesla fans, this may be disconcerting, but the transition to an electrified automotive future will require competition and choice for the consumer. The real surprise here was GM. which had very robust sales of the Bolt. Your author isn’t surprised because here in Southern California, a place I call home for the winter, there is a Bolt (literally) on every corner. Not as saturated as Tesla, but closer than you think. It is a bit long in the tooth since it was introduced seven years ago, but for roughly $25K AND the IRA $7500 refund, it’s a screaming deal and has the low end of the market all to itself. To folks that say GM is late to the EV game or not a major player, how would you like your crow served?