General Motors (GM) overtook Ford to become the number-two selling electric vehicle (EV) maker in the United States behind Tesla. GM posted Q1 sales of its highly popular Chevy Bolt EV totaling 19,700 units. Meanwhile, Ford grew EV sales by 41% to 10,866 units. However, the company’s sales were held back due to downtime at a plant that produces the Mustang Mach-E. Ford sold just 4291 F-150 Lighting electric pickup trucks but plans to hit an annual production rate of 150,000 F-150 Lightning trucks by this year. Ford’s F-150 Lightning backlog is hundreds of thousands of units, indicating the demand is there and it’s the production woes that are holding Ford back. Another tailwind for Ford is that sales by Ford Pro of the E-Transit, America’s best-selling electric van last year, climbed 62.7% in the quarter. GM and Ford are competing in a variety of product categories at attractive price points to directly take market share from Tesla.
Meanwhile, pure-play luxury EV maker Rivian produced 9395 vehicles in the quarter and delivered 7946 vehicles. It reiterated its plan to deliver 50,000 EVs in 2023. The Rivian R1T pickup truck and R1S SUV start at more than US$70,000, meaning they are more so competing with comparable gas-powered luxury vehicles, not necessarily lower-priced EVs.
Tesla remains the number-one EV maker. It produced more than 440,000 vehicles in Q1, delivering more than 422,000 vehicles. While GM, Ford, and Rivian’s sales are almost entirely in the United States, the bulk of Tesla’s sales are international. Estimates vary, but Motor Intelligence said that around 161,000 of Tesla’s Q1 deliveries were in the United States.
In total, Tesla produced 19,437 Model S and Model X vehicles, delivering 10,695 of them. It produced 421,371 Model 3 and Model Y vehicles, delivering 412,180 of them.
