EVs outpace broader market, buoyed by fresh models and heavy incentives, U.S. registration data shows

New electric vehicle sales growth outpaced the broader U.S. auto market in June, spurred by fresh models and heavy incentives, according to the latest registration data from S&P Global Mobility.

The monthly data, along with registrations for the first half of the year, showed an EV market still growing. Automakers drove down high EV prices with big incentive programs.

"The June month numbers were good for EVs," said Kent Chiu, an analyst at S&P Global Mobility. "But behind them were pretty strong incentives as a motivator."

New EV registrations rose 3.1 percent in June from a year earlier to 108,026 vehicles compared with an 8.8 percent drop in the broader light-vehicle market to just over 1.2 million, S&P Global Mobility said.

The relatively strong showing pushed EV market share to 8.9 percent in June from 7.9 percent in June 2023. The registration data, which is the most recent available, doesn't include gasoline-electric hybrids or used vehicles.

But automakers' reliance on sky-high incentives to sell EVs reflects softening demand, Chiu said.

"A lot of manufacturers still have pretty strong incentives to sell EVs on dealer lots or in transit to dealerships," he said.

Discounts on some mainstream electric crossovers climbed as high as $18,000 per vehicle, a number unheard of for their gasoline and hybrid counterparts, according to data from Motor Intelligence. The average incentive on the Kia EV9 in June was $18,081, Motor Intelligence said.

Toyota's battery-electric bZ4x crossover had incentives of $11,761 on average in June, according to Motor Intelligence, while the similarly sized RAV4 had just $1,691 per vehicle. The RAV4 comes in gasoline and hybrid versions. Incentives on the electric Nissan Ariya crossover were $14,779 for the month versus $4,267 for the gas-powered Nissan Rogue, Motor Intelligence said.

Some of the incentive money comes indirectly through EV leasing, which allows finance companies to claim the $7,500 federal EV tax credit and pass some or all of it on to consumers. But automakers and their finance arms are not obligated to do so.

New models that were not on sale a year earlier also strengthened the EV segment in June, including the Tesla Cybertruck, the Kia EV9 crossover, the Chevrolet Blazer EV crossover and the Chevrolet Equinox EV crossover, S&P Global Mobility's data showed.

In June, the Cybertruck notched 4,675 registrations. Without the Tesla pickup, EV registrations for the industry would have declined for the month. The EV9 had 1,736 registrations and the Blazer EV and Equinox EV had 3,054 combined.

"As more EVs come to market and occupy segments that match internal-combustion vehicles, there will be more consumers that switch over to the EV space," Chiu said. There's more room in the market, for example, for a mainstream three-row EV crossover to compete with the midsize Kia EV9.

Cybertruck registrations also bolstered Tesla's June numbers. The automaker's registrations were still down 2.4 percent from a year earlier, but June was an improvement over Tesla's 10 percent drop in registrations over the first half of the year, the data showed.

EV registrations also increased during the first half of 2024, compared with the first half of 2023. Registrations rose 7 percent to 579,687 vehicles compared with a 1.8 percent rise in the overall light-vehicle market to 7.8 million, S&P Global Mobility said. EV share rose to 7.4 percent from 7.1 percent a year earlier.

Registration data serves as a proxy to automaker sales numbers because Tesla doesn't break out its U.S. deliveries and some other automakers don't report EV sales by model.