California’s 3Q Auto Market Registrations Continued to Rise Helped by EV Sales

A new report shows a 14.3% increase in California’s new vehicle registrations compared to the first nine months of 2022 pushed by rising electric vehicle sales.

The 3rd quarter 2023 Auto Outlook report from the California New Car Dealers Association forecasts California will end the year at 1.8 million new vehicle registrations and is predicted to reach 1.88 million in 2024. California’s Q3 2023 new car registration numbers are a percentage point better than the national results, which yielded a 13.3% improvement compared with a year earlier.

Continued pent-up demand since the pandemic is expected to continue to support new vehicle sales for years to come. However, high interest rates cutting further into affordability, depleted household savings and the potential UAW strike after-effects are expected to be major factors impeding the state’s new vehicle sales, the report shows.

The report shows the pace of new car sales accelerated in Q3 with an increase of 21.1% year-over-year. Last year’s Q3 numbers showed a 14.1% decline.

The report gives a breakdown of the state’s new battery electric vehicles (BEV) and plug-in hybrid (PHEV) sales and market health, including YTD and quarterly electric, hybrid, and PHEV sales numbers.

California’s BEV market share increased to 21.5% during the first nine months of 2023. While internal combustion vehicles account for 64.6% of the state’s new vehicle sales share, sales were down from 71.6% in 2022. Sales of BEVs, PHEVs, hybrids, and fuel cell sales in the state accounted for a 35.4% share YTD compared with 11.6% in 2018, according to the report.

California leads the nation in BEV registrations, with nearly 35% of sales. California’s BEV market share remains at just over 21% in the first nine months of 2023. The nation’s BEV market share is 7.4% of sales YTD.

The top selling BEV and PHEV models were Tesla Model Y, Tesla Model 3, the Chevy Bolt, and the Jeep Wrangler.

Tesla continues to be the BEV market share leader in California, but new numbers show their lead diminishing as traditional automakers roll out new electric vehicle models. Tesla showed an 8.9% loss in share compared with YTD 2022 to 2023 numbers. Mercedes and BMW showed the highest increases of BEV sales in California, picking up 2.6% and 2.5% percent of the share respectively.

Northern Californians remained the largest adopters of BEVs, capturing 25.7% of the market share, while Southern California BEV sales reported 21.1% of registrations, the report shows.

Topics California Trends Auto