Tesla has the top 3 electric cars in the US, and it’s not even close

Tesla currently has the top three electric cars in the United States so far in 2022, and the competition isn’t even close.

The United States is trailing far behind Europe and China when it comes to electrifying its passenger car market. There are many factors at play, including weaker incentives and a preference for pickup trucks, which is a segment that is just now being electrified.

But, we are starting to see a significant increase in EV adoption over the last year, and this last quarter was particularly important for EV adoption in the United States.

As we previously reported, the United States saw a 29% increase in EV deliveries compared to last year, according to data coming from CARB.

Now Experian is out with more data giving us a better idea of the most popular electric vehicles in the United States so far this year:

1. Tesla Model Y: 52,051
2. Tesla Model 3: 47,682
3. Tesla Model S: 9,250
4. Ford Mustang Mach-E: 6,957
5. Hyundai Ioniq 5: 6,265
6. Kia EV6: 4,901
7. Tesla Model X: 4,899
8. Nissan Leaf: 4,401
9. Kia Niro Electric: 3,549
10. Volkswagen ID.4: 2,926

As you can see, Tesla has the top 3 most popular electric vehicle in the United States and the first two are in a league of their own in terms of volume.

Model S comes in third with over 9,000 units delivered in Q1 2022 – 33% more than the Mustang Mach-E that comes in fourth despite the former’s average sale price likely being twice as high as the latter’s.

However, the important thing to keep in mind is that those numbers are not representative of the demand for these vehicles but rather the production capacity or US allocation for each.

Most of the vehicles on this list have four to 12 months wait times for deliveries on new orders, but they are production-limited and, in the cases of vehicles like the IOniq 5 and EV6, they are limited by the allocations that Hyundai gives to US dealers.

Tesla has been early in investing in high volume production of its electric vehicles – giving it a massive lead with more than 70% of all electric vehicles in the United States being produced by the now-Texas-based automaker.

Speaking of Texas, Tesla is still heavily investing in production in the United States with Gigafactory Texas in Austin, which should help ramp up Model Y deliveries in the United States and extend the electric SUV’s lead.

Until other EVs come to market in high volumes next year, like the Ford F-150 Lightning, Tesla is expected to remain alone at the top.