Electric car sales in the first nine months of 2023 in the United States: Mercedes in 3rd place in the premium segment

Sales of electric cars in the US in the first nine months of 2023 totaled 873,082 units. In a market dominated by Tesla, Mercedes ranked 3rd in the premium segment with 29,686 units sold.

With a market share of 56.53%, Tesla dominates the electric car market in the United States in the first nine months of 2023, although compared to 2022, it lost a 10% market share. Of the 493,513 units sold, more than half are represented by the Tesla Model Y SUV, with 296,059 units.

But Mercedes is in a very good position with 29,686 units sold in the premium market. Only Rivian and BMW have sold more electric models than Mercedes. At Rivian, one of the two models sold, the R1T, is a pick-up, a segment in which Mercedes is not present.

Mercedes sells six electric models in the United States: EQB, EQE sedan and SUV, EQS sedan and SUV, and EQS Maybach SUV. Mercedes’ best-selling electric model in the first nine months in the United States was the EQS sedan, with 12,720 units sold. 12% of total Mercedes sales in the United States are electric models. We expect Mercedes electric model sales to increase in 2024 because the new EQS SUV and EQE SUV were launched only a few months ago, and the United States is a favorable market for SUVs.

With the exception of BMW, which sold about 1,500 more units than Mercedes, the other premium model manufacturers have much weaker sales than Mercedes. Audi sold 17,628 units, Porsche 5,212 units, and Lexus only 2,511 units. In contrast, younger premium brands like Lucid and Polestar have increased their sales, with 4,588 and 8,887 units.

The U.S. electric car market has grown from a 2.31% market share in 2019 to 5.71% in 2023, according to EVAdoption statistics, and is projected to reach 17.65% in 2028.

There are currently 2,442,270 electric cars registered in the US which represents only 0.86% of the total US car fleet. More than a third of these vehicles, or 903,620 (2.5% of the total), are registered in California, where 1 in 50 registered vehicles is electric. By contrast, in Mississippi and North Dakota, the percentage of electric cars registered is less than 1%.