EV sales cool in October but interest remains solid

EV sales

Automotive shopping guide and tracking site Edmunds.com reports that EV sales activity cooled in October after setting sales records in September, a direct result of the end of the $7,500 federal tax credit. They also report that average transaction prices for new electric vehicle (EV) during the month as well.

Market watchers, including Edmunds, suggest that October will mark the start of what will likely be a normalization of interest in EV ownership, in contrast to the feeding frenzy resulting from the end of the tax incentives.

In fact, Edmunds own data shows that EV interest, while down from 12.7% in early September, dipped only to 9.0% in mid-October, remaining close to the roughly 10% level the industry has seen for several years. The implication being that there remains a good number of buyers for electric vehicles going forward.

For the record, Edmunds measures EV interest weekly.

The question is, will manufacturers continue to develop new and more affordable EVs. At last count, EVs are now on average about 12% more expensive than an average new internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle. And while this gap continues to trend downward in a hurry, the EV industry remains heavily weighted towards premium vehicles.

We’ve argued in the past that the EV industry would do well to create a broader mix of lower priced, reduced featured vehicles to truly dent the new vehicle market.

One really good outcome from the spike in EV sales as the tax incentives came to a close is that we are two or three years away from a surge of pre-owned EVs, which can only be good for the overall EV marketplace.

Edmunds offers a good deal more data on EV sales in their report that you can see here.

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