Feb. 20, 2017—Electric car sales in the United States shot up by 37 percent in 2016, according to Forbes.
There are more than 30 battery-powered and plug-in hybrid offerings, with over 159,139 vehicles in the U.S. market right now. It’s the 70 percent year-over-year increase in monthly sales, which helped build the momentum to stronger overall sales. The sales jump by 37 percent comes following a five percent decline in sales from 2014 to 2015.
The slight increase has spurred a new class of electric vehicles from investor-funded startups, such as Lucid Motors, founded in 2007 under the former name Atieva. The Menlo Park-based automaker rolled out its first electric car in 2014. Its first car, the Lucid Air, debuted in 2016 as a 1,000-horsepower electric luxury sedan. The model is said to rival Tesla’s acclaimed Model S.
The five models that sold at least 10,000 units in 2016 are: Tesla Model X, Tesla Model S, Nissan Leaf, Chevrolet Volt, and Ford Fusion Energi.
Presently, over half of all electric car sales in California requires a certain percentage of automaker’s sales be zero-emission vehicle. By 2020, California aims to put 1.5 million zero-emission vehicles on the state’s roads. In spite of the decline in electric car sales in the U.S. the compound annual growth rate is at 32 percent.
The growth has been stronger worldwide. In fact, since 2014, global electric car sales have more than doubled. The year 2016 saw a 41 percent increase in sales to peak 777,497 vehicles, following 72 percent rise in 2015.
