EV Sales Will Soar in 2022 as New Models Flood the Market
Ed Kim is vice president of industry analysis at AutoPacific, a major automotive industry market research and consulting firm. He leads competitive intelligence and sales forecasting activities for the firm and has an extensive background in product planning and consumer research in both OEM and outside consulting environments.
Overall light vehicle sales plummeted last year because of pandemic-related supply chain issues, but electric vehicle sales are set to surge in 2022.
EVs are expected to reach over 450,000 sales in 2021, and EV sales through November were up 88% compared to 2020 EV sales through last November. This huge increase is due to a few key new models arriving in the marketplace this year, such as the Ford Mustang Mach-E and Volkswagen ID.4. In its first full year, Tesla’s Model Y was by far the EV sales leader in 2021.
That momentum will build further in 2022 as many more all-electric models will arrive in the marketplace, notably in the most popular vehicle segments in the U.S. market.
Electric pickups are arriving, including the Ford F-150 Lightning, Rivian R1T, and GMC Hummer. Compact crossovers, which are currently the highest selling model in the U.S. market, will add key new entries too. These include the Nissan Ariya, Hyundai IONIQ 5, Kia EV6, and Toyota bZ4X, among others. No longer will EV shoppers looking beyond Tesla be faced with an array of un-aspirational small five-door hatchbacks.
The combination of growing consumer demand and new entries in the segments American shoppers are most interested in means that EV sales will continue to climb rapidly in 2022 even as the overall light vehicle market continues to deal with supply chain issues. Indeed, AutoPacific’s Future Attribute Demand Study (FADS) data show that consumer interest in EVs has tripled in three short years, with 9% of new vehicle shoppers in 2021 saying they’ll be looking to buy an EV for their next car, compared to just 3% who said so in 2019.
With growing consumer interest and awareness combined with an influx of new EV choices, AutoPacific forecasts that EV sales are expected to hit at least 650,000 sales in 2022, an increase of about 45% over expected 2021 EV sales.
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Ed Kim is vice president of industry analysis at AutoPacific, a major automotive industry market research and consulting firm. He leads competitive intelligence and sales forecasting activities for the firm and has an extensive background in product planning and consumer research in both OEM and outside consulting environments.
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