California says EVS now have a fifth of auto sales

One out of every five cars sold in California is now powered by a battery, registration data released Wednesday by the California New Car Dealers Association shows.

In the first nine months of 2023, electric vehicles accounted for 21.5% of cars sold in California, a figure that’s more than doubled in the past two years. When combined with hybrid, plug-in hybrid and fuel-cell vehicles, the year-to-date figure is 35.4%.

California has long been a champion of electric cars, and Gov. Gavin Newsom said he’ll phase out sales of new, gasoline-powered cars by 2035 as part of the state’s fight against climate change. Elon Musk’s Tesla Inc. was founded in the state, and the EV adoption curve has accelerated faster in California than in other parts of the country.

Battery-powered cars make up only 7.4% of the overall US auto market, the California report said.

That’s helped the state defy some of the gloom now facing the broader EV market. Both Tesla and conventional automakers have said they’ll slow their investments in battery-powered cars for now, warning that high interest rates and prices are affecting demand.

Tesla’s lead in the California electric-vehicle market has slipped this year, according to state data. Its overall market share fell to 62.9% in the first nine months of 2023, compared with its 71.8% share the year before.

Gasoline- and dieselpowered vehicles known as ICE, for their internal combustion engines, made up 62.3% of new vehicle registrations in California during the period. That’s a drop from 71.6% in 2022.