In the United States, the market share of new EVs exceeded 7% in the first half of the year.
Most notably, the record pace of nearly 1 million new electric cars per year is catching attention.
In the last 12 months up to June, Americans purchased 977,445 units that run solely on electricity, according to a Bloomberg Green analysis.
While it took 10 years for the North American country to sell its first million fully electric vehicles, it only took two years to reach the second million, and just over a year to reach the third.
By the time the figures for the last quarter are tallied next month, the country should be well on its way to the fourth.
It’s worth mentioning that the only time 12-month EV sales declined was for a brief period starting in the third quarter of 2019.
This happened when Tesla temporarily exported a significant portion of its US-made Model 3 inventory to kick off overseas sales. The period also coincided with the onset of the pandemic.
So far, the story of electric vehicle adoption in the country has been the tale of two dominant actors: the state of California and Tesla.
California was the first top-ten global auto market to reach the crucial 5% market share tipping point for electric car sales.
Meanwhile, Tesla recently surpassed Toyota as the top-selling vehicle brand, electric or not, in the state.
For electric vehicles to truly become mainstream across the United States and for the Detroit auto industry to survive the transition, markets need to diversify.
This geographical diversification has started, with California losing some of its electric vehicle market share to states like Texas, Florida, Washington, and New Jersey. Nevertheless, Tesla remains the driving force, responsible for 61% of electric vehicles sold in the United States.
Read more: Trump warns of the collapse of the EV industry, saying “China will take everything”
