2021 was a huge year for overall electric vehicle sales in the US, but only California (13.4%) and the District of Columbia (11.2%) had a combined BEV and PHEV sales share of at least 10%.
With the availability of the EVAdoption EV & Hybrid Sales By State: 2021 data file, we are sharing a few trend charts to highlight some of the trends you will find in the data.
States By Alternative Powertrain Sales Share in 2021
When looking at the combined sales of all alternative powertrain vehicles — fuel cell EVs (FCEVs), BEVs, PHEVs, and regular hybrids — four states and districts surpassed 20%: California (24.7%), District of Columbia (23.4%), Washington (21.9%), and Oregon (20.4%).
Only four states exceeded 20% sales share for alternative powertrain vehicles, however, no states were between 15%-19.9%, but a combined 45 states were between 5% to 14.9%. Alternative powertrain sales share for the US overall was 11.5% in 2021, while the median across the 50 states and the District of Columbia was 9.2% and the average was 10.5%.
BEV And PHEV Sales Share
While BEV sales had a very strong 2021 in the US with an overall 3.4% sales share, only seven states had a BEV sales share of 5% or more with California topping the list at at 10.1% and the only state to reach the 10% mark.
On the other end of the spectrum, 27 states or 54% had a BEV sales share in 2021 of less than 2% and 8 of those states were at less than 1%. And 35 states or 68.9% of states were below 3%.
While California, District of Columbia, and Oregon are no surprise to occupy top positions in EV sales share charts, four New England states — Vermont (2.7%), Maine (2.3%), Massachusetts (2.2%), and Connecticut (2.1%) — coming in at the number 4-7 slot is interesting. Massachusetts (3.5%) is the highest ranked New England state for BEV sales share, followed by Connecticut (3.33%) and Vermont (3.25%) and the number 14 and 15 slots. And Main ranks 26th for BEVs with a 1.6% BEV sales share.
We can only speculate that the difference in PHEV versus BEV sales share in these New England states is a result of a combination or state incentives, cold winters and snow, and the many available crossovers and SUV PHEVs. In Maine, for example, several popular PHEV SUVs/CUVs including the Toyota RAV4 Prime and Ford Escape PHEV (among others) with available all-wheel drive qualify for the Efficiency Maine rebates, albeit only $1,000 versus the $2,000 for qualifying BEVs.
Looking for more sales and sales share data by state for 2021. Check out our EV & Hybrid Sales By State: 2021 data file, now available to purchase.
