Ford, Kia, Hyundai top mainstream EV registrations; Tesla dominates luxury segment

Ford topped new-vehicle registrations for electric vehicles among mainstream brands in the first four months of the year, followed closely by Kia and Hyundai.

But Tesla dominated the EV registration charts overall in the U.S. and remained the top luxury automaker regardless of fuel type, according to new numbers from Experian.

California-based EV startups Rivian Automotive and Lucid Group continued to struggle with their production ramp-ups, according to the registration data, with just over 1,700 combined through April.

Ford's 11,751 EV registrations came mostly from the Mustang Mach-E crossover at 10,740, along with 908 E-Transit vans and 103 of the new F-150 Lightning pickup, the four-month data showed. Ford EV registrations doubled from the same period the previous year.

New EV registrations for Kia came in at 11,483 in the January-April period, compared with just 1,549 in the year-earlier period. Kia's EV6 compact crossover made up 7,303 of the total while its subcompact Niro EV came in at 4,180, according to Experian data.

The Hyundai brand, part of Hyundai Motor Group along with Kia, had 9,675 new registrations — 8,597 from the new Ioniq 5 compact crossover and the rest from the subcompact Kona electric crossover and the now-discontinued Ioniq electric hatchback.

Nissan had 5,980 new EV registrations through April, all from its Leaf compact hatchback. Volkswagen had 3,527 registrations, all from its ID4 compact crossover.

Chevrolet had 1,648 new registrations from its Bolt subcompact, according to the Experian numbers, an 88 percent decrease from the same period last year. The automaker stopped Bolt production for several months last year and this year because of battery issues, but resumed in April. Last week, Chevrolet announced price cuts for Bolt models.

New EV registrations are likely to continue their steady increase after a 53 percent rise in the January-April period. EV share of the light-vehicle market rose to 4.4 percent from 2.3 percent in the year-ago period.

In addition to the ramp-up of the F-150 Lightning and the resumption of Bolt output, Genesis recently launched the GV60 compact crossover that's closely related to Hyundai and Kia's new EVs. Cadillac recently launched the Lyriq crossover, and multiple luxury brands — including Volvo and Polestar — are rolling out new EV models.

To be sure, global auto production will depend on access to semiconductors and other vehicle parts that have been in tight supply. Industry registrations overall were down 20 percent through April, according to Experian.

New-vehicle registration data lags several weeks behind sales data that is announced by manufacturers. Registration numbers are a proxy for vehicle deliveries but do not track exactly with manufacturer sales numbers. Vehicles may be sold in one month and registered in another, and some registration data relies on estimates.

However, registrations offer an apples-to-apples comparison where sales data is missing. For example, Tesla reports vehicle sales only on a global basis, not separating its U.S. numbers, and many automakers report their sales only on a quarterly basis. Some brands don't break out sales for EV versions of vehicles that also have gasoline or hybrid models, such as the Niro and the Kona.

Tesla continued to dominate new U.S. EV registrations overall with 139,338 in the January-April period, a 52 percent increase from a year earlier. Its Model Y was easily the best-selling EV in the U.S. with 64,173 registrations, followed by the Model 3 at 56,525. The Model S came in third with 11,499.

Tesla also dominated luxury vehicle registrations, regardless of fuel type. BMW was second with 106,339 total new registrations, a decrease of 6.4 percent from a year earlier. BMW's new EV registrations were just 611 of the total.

Lexus was in third place in total luxury registrations with 88,672 for a 18 percent drop compared with a year earlier. None of the Lexus models were full EVs.

Mercedes was in fourth place with 83,358 new luxury registrations, according to Experian. Of those, 2,641 came from its electric executive sedan, the EQS. Audi was fifth at 51,011 registrations in the four-month period for a 37 percent drop. Nearly 10 percent of Audi's registrations came from its e-tron line of electric vehicles.

Rivian had 1,145 new registrations of its R1T pickup, but none from the R1S SUV, according to Experian. Lucid had 582 registrations of its Air sedan from January to April.