More Americans are buying electric vehicles, as gas car sales fall, report says

More Americans are making the switch to electric, moving away from gas-powered cars to electric vehicles. Between October and December 2021, electric cars made up 6 percent of all light-duty vehicle sales, the highest volume for any quarter on record. 

A new report by Alliance for Automotive Innovation found more than 187,490 electric vehicles were sold in the fourth quarter across the U.S., marking an 11 percent increase in the total volume of all electric vehicle sales compared to third quarter. During the same time period, traditional gas-powered cars, known as internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, decreased by 1.3 percent compared to the third quarter.  

Electric vehicles are steadily increasing their market share, accounting for about 4 percent of all car sales in 2020 and growing to about 6 percent in 2021. 

That could in part be due to the increasing variety of styles now available in electric, as the alliance noted that today light trucks, like crossover utility vehicles, SUVs, minivans and pickups, comprise nearly 58 percent of the electric vehicle market.

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Countless automakers have announced their electric vehicle plans — like Maserati, which announced its first all-electric SUV on Tuesday, called the Grecale Folgore. It will become available for purchase starting next year. 

Automaker Stellantis is also set to begin selling its electric Jeep SUV series in early 2023. Ford is also reportedly planning to make additional investments of up to $20 billion over the next decade as the company reorganizes to produce electric vehicles. 

Electric vehicles are an integral piece to President Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure plan as his administration unveiled its National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program last month — providing $5 billion to states to develop electric vehicle charging stations.  

The goal is to establish a nationwide network of 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations, which the president hopes will help support his goal of getting electric car sales up to 50 percent of all car sales by 2030.  

To push consumers toward electric, the Biden administration has also implemented a federal tax credit of up to $7,500 for all electric and plug-in hybrid cars purchased new in or after 2010. The credit amount varies depending on the capacity of the battery used to power the vehicle. 

California is leading the country in electric vehicle adoption, with alliance’s report noting in 2021 the state accounted for nearly 40 percent of all registered light-duty electric vehicles in the U.S. Florida followed at nearly 6 percent, Texas at about 5 percent and New York at 4.4 percent.

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