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Tesla vs. competition: How many BEVs did OEMs sell in the U.S. in 2024?

Credit: Tesla

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Tesla remained the dominant seller of battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) in the U.S. last year, with early estimates showing that the company sold more than most of its competitors combined. While data isn’t yet available for every automaker selling BEVs in the U.S., we took the time to compile some of the earliest estimates available for 2024 BEV sales, giving us an idea of where Tesla’s competitors landed in the year’s sales.

According to Cox Automotive, automakers sold 1.3 million BEVs in the U.S. in 2024, making up 8 percent of the total market share of nearly 16 million vehicles sold across powertrain types. EV sales also jumped in Q4 to 356,000 vehicles, marking a 12 percent jump year over year.

Cox also expects EV deliveries to surpass 1.5 million in the U.S. in 2025, while 2023 deliveries topped out at 1.2 million.

General Motors (GM) and Ford took up the second and third spots in U.S. BEV sales in 2024, both following Tesla, which held first place decisively. GM’s BEV sales were made up of the Chevy Equinox EV, the Chevy Blazer EV, the Chevy Silverado EV, the Cadillac Lyriq, the GMC Hummer EV, the GMC Sierra EV, and the BrightDrop EV600 commercial van. Ford’s BEV sales were comprised of the Mustang Mach-E, the F-150 Lightning, and the E-Transit.

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Toyota was one of the few other manufacturers to release specific U.S. and BEV data, with the latter being made up of those from the BZ4X and Lexus RZ. The vast majority of Toyota’s “electrified” vehicles is comprised of hybrid and plugin hybrid powertrains, along with the Mirai which sports a fuel cell powertrain. All of these electrified vehicle types are excluded from the figure below.

Hyundai’s BEV figure was made up of Ioniq 5, Ioniq 6, and Kona BEV sales, the latter of which is also offered in a hybrid version. The company’s subsidiary Kia had BEV sales including the battery-electric EV6 and EV9, and while the automaker also sells a BEV version of the Niro, it did not separate the vehicle’s hybrid and BEV versions in its report released last week.

It’s worth noting that Tesla doesn’t share figures for individual market sales, though the maker was estimated by Cox Automotive to have sold about 633,000 units to remain the clear leader in the market. Others, such as Lucid and Rivian, deliver the vast majority of their vehicles in the U.S., though they do not break out region-specific figures. Meanwhile, similar estimates for the brands have not yet been shared publicly.

READ MORE ABOUT U.S. BEV SALES: Colorado becomes the #1 state for EV sales, beating California

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Audi had 23,152 BEVs sold in the U.S. made up of its e-tron Q4, Q6, Q8, and GT lineups, while its parent company, Volkswagen, sold blank units comprised of the ID.4 and newly launched ID.Buzz, which was only sold in the market in the fourth quarter. BMW sold its battery-electric i4, i5, i7, and iX models in the U.S. last year.

Nissan’s BEVs included the Leaf and the Ariya, which saw year-to-date sales increases of 57 and 47 percent, respectively.

Cox Automotive is also expected to unveil its 2024 EV Sales report in the coming weeks, which should shed light on many of the automakers that have not shared market-specific figures.

You can see the recent estimates from Cox Automotive on the top EV makers in the U.S. in 2024 below, along with some figures directly from each automaker. Additionally, the source of the figures are linked near the bottom of the page.

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How many BEVs did automakers sell in the U.S. in 2024?

  1. Tesla: 633,762
  2. GM: 114,432
  3. Ford: 97,865
  4. Hyundai: 61,797
  5. Kia: 56,099
  6. Rivian: 51,442
  7. BMW: 50,981
  8. Nissan: 31,024
  9. Toyota: 28,267
  10. Mercedes-Benz: 21,154
  11. Audi: 23,152
  12. Volkswagen: 18,183

Top 10 EV models sold in the U.S., according to Cox Auto estimates

  1. Tesla Model Y
  2. Tesla Model 3
  3. Ford Mustang Mach-E
  4. Hyundai Ioniq 5
  5. Tesla Cybertruck
  6. Ford F-150 Lightning
  7. Honda Prologue
  8. Chevy Equinox EV
  9. Cadillac Lyriq
  10. Rivian R1S

You can see detailed estimates from Cox Automotive, which were released on January 13.

Audi | BMW | Ford | GM | Hyundai | Lucid | Nissan | Rivian | Tesla | Toyota | Volkswagen

Updated 1/19: Added the latest figures from Cox Automotive estimates.

What are your thoughts? Did I miss any automakers or U.S. sales figures? Let me know at zach@teslarati.com, find me on X at @zacharyvisconti, or send us tips at tips@teslarati.com.

Study reveals less than 1% of EV owners wish to switch back to ICE

 

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Zach is a renewable energy reporter who has been covering electric vehicles since 2020. He grew up in Fremont, California, and he currently lives in Colorado. His work has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, KRON4 San Francisco, FOX31 Denver, InsideEVs, CleanTechnica, and many other publications. When he isn't covering Tesla or other EV companies, you can find him writing and performing music, drinking a good cup of coffee, or hanging out with his cats, Banks and Freddie. Reach out at zach@teslarati.com, find him on X at @zacharyvisconti, or send us tips at tips@teslarati.com.

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Tesla intertwines FSD with in-house Insurance for attractive incentive

Every mile logged under FSD now carries a documented financial value—lower risk, lower cost—based on Tesla’s internal driving data rather than external crash statistics alone.

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tesla interior operating on full self driving
Credit: TESLARATI

Tesla intertwined its Full Self-Driving (Supervised) suite with its in-house Insurance initiative in an effort to offer an attractive incentive to drivers.

Tesla announced that its new Safety Score 3.0 will automatically have a perfect score of 100 with every mile driven with Full Self-Driving (Supervised) enabled.

The change is designed to boost customers’ average safety scores and deliver noticeably lower monthly premiums.

The move marks the clearest link yet between Tesla’s autonomous driving technology and its proprietary insurance product. Tesla Insurance already relies on real-time vehicle data—such as acceleration, braking, following distance, and speed—to calculate a Safety Score between 0 and 100. Higher scores have long translated into cheaper rates.

Under the previous system, however, even brief manual interventions could drag down the average, frustrating owners who rely heavily on FSD. Version 3.0 eliminates that penalty for supervised autonomous miles, effectively treating FSD-driven segments as the safest possible driving behavior.

The incentive is immediate and financial. Drivers who keep FSD engaged for the majority of their trips will see their overall score rise, potentially shaving hundreds of dollars off annual premiums.

Tesla framed the update as a direct response to customer feedback, many of whom had complained that the old scoring model punished the very behavior it was meant to encourage.

For now, the program applies only to new policies in six states: Indiana, Tennessee, Texas, Arizona, Virginia, and Illinois.

Existing policyholders are not yet included, a point that drew swift questions from the Tesla community. Many owners in other states, including California and Georgia, expressed hope that the benefit would expand nationwide soon.

The announcement arrives as Tesla continues to roll out FSD Supervised updates and push for regulatory approval of more advanced autonomy. By tying insurance savings directly to FSD usage, the company is putting its own actuarial weight behind the technology’s safety claims.

Every mile logged under FSD now carries a documented financial value—lower risk, lower cost—based on Tesla’s internal driving data rather than external crash statistics alone.

Tesla has not disclosed exact premium reductions or the full rollout timeline beyond the six launch states.

Still, the message is clear: the more drivers trust FSD Supervised, the more Tesla Insurance will reward them. In an era when legacy insurers remain cautious about autonomous tech, Tesla is betting that its own data will prove the safest miles are the ones driven hands-free.

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Elon Musk

Tesla finalizes AI5 chip design, Elon Musk makes bold claim on capability

The Tesla CEO’s words mark a strategic shift. Tesla has long emphasized software-hardware co-design, squeezing maximum performance from every transistor. Musk previously described AI5 as optimized for edge inference in both Robotaxi and Optimus.

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Credit: Elon Musk | X

Tesla has finalized its chip design for AI5, as Elon Musk confirmed today that the new chip has reached the tape-out stage, the final step before mass production.

But in a brief reply on X, Musk clarified Tesla’s AI hardware roadmap, essentially confirming that the new chip will not be utilized for being “enough to achieve much better than human safety for FSD.”

He said that AI4 is enough to do that.

Instead, the AI5 chip will be focused on Tesla’s big-time projects for the future: Optimus and supercomputer clusters.

Musk thanked TSMC and Samsung for production support, noting that AI5 could become “one of the most produced AI chips ever.” Yet, the key pivot came in his direct answer: vehicles no longer need the bleeding-edge silicon.

Existing AI4 hardware, which is already deployed in hundreds of thousands of HW4-equipped Teslas, delivers safety metrics superior to human drivers for Full Self-Driving. AI5 will instead accelerate Optimus robot development and massive Dojo-style training clusters.

The Tesla CEO’s words mark a strategic shift. Tesla has long emphasized software-hardware co-design, squeezing maximum performance from every transistor. Musk previously described AI5 as optimized for edge inference in both Robotaxi and Optimus.

Now, with AI4 proving sufficient, the company avoids costly retrofits across its fleet while redirecting next-generation compute toward higher-value applications: dexterous robots and exponential training scale.

But is it reasonable to assume AI4 enables unsupervised self-driving? Yes, but with important caveats.

On the hardware side, the claim is credible. Tesla’s FSD stack runs end-to-end neural networks trained on billions of miles of real-world data. Internal safety data reportedly shows AI4-equipped vehicles already outperforming average human drivers by a significant margin in controlled metrics (collision avoidance, reaction time, edge-case handling).

Dual-redundant AI4 chips provide ample headroom for the driving task, leaving bandwidth for future model improvements without new silicon. Musk’s assertion aligns with Tesla’s pattern of over-provisioning compute early, then optimizing ruthlessly, exactly as HW3 once sufficed before HW4 scaled further.

Unsupervised autonomy, meaning Level 4 or higher, is not solely a compute problem. Regulatory approval remains the primary gate.

Even if AI4 achieves “much better than human” safety statistically, agencies like the NHTSA demand exhaustive validation, liability frameworks, and public trust.

Tesla’s supervised FSD has shown rapid gains in recent versions, yet real-world edge cases, like construction zones, emergency vehicles, and adverse weather, still require driver intervention in many jurisdictions. Competitors like Waymo operate limited unsupervised fleets, but only in geofenced areas with extensive mapping. Tesla’s vision-only, fleet-scale approach is more ambitious—and harder to certify globally.

In short, Musk’s post is both pragmatic and bullish. AI4 is likely capable of unsupervised FSD from a technical standpoint. Whether regulators and consumers agree, and how quickly, will determine if Tesla’s bet pays off.

The company’s capital-efficient path keeps existing cars relevant while pouring future compute into robots. If the safety data holds, unsupervised autonomy could arrive sooner than many expect.

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Elon Musk

Elon Musk signals expansion of Tesla’s unique side business

Long envisioning the Tesla Diner as more than a charging stop, Musk has clearly adopted the idea that the Supercharger and Restaurant combo is a good thing for the company to have. It’s a blend of classic American drive-in culture with futuristic Tesla flair, complete with a 1950s-inspired design, movie screens, and on-site dining.

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tesla diner
Credit: Tesla

Elon Musk has signaled an expansion of Tesla’s unique side business, something that really has nothing to do with cars or spaceships, but fans of the company have truly adopted it as just another one of its awesome ventures.

Musk confirmed on Wednesday that Tesla would build a new Diner location in Palo Alto, Northern California. After hinting last October that it “probably makes sense to open one near our Giga Texas HQ in Austin and engineering HQ in Palo Alto,” it seems one of those locations is being set into motion.

Long envisioning the Tesla Diner as more than a charging stop, Musk has clearly adopted the idea that the Supercharger and Restaurant combo is a good thing for the company to have. It’s a blend of classic American drive-in culture with futuristic Tesla flair, complete with a 1950s-inspired design, movie screens, and on-site dining.

He first floated broader expansion plans shortly after the LA opening in July 2025, noting that if the prototype succeeded, Tesla would roll out similar venues in major cities worldwide and along long-distance Supercharger routes.

Earlier hints included a confirmed second site at Starbase in Texas, tied to SpaceX operations, underscoring the Diner’s role in enhancing Tesla’s ecosystem behind vehicles.

The Los Angeles location on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood has served as a high-profile test case. Opened in July 2025 at 7001 Santa Monica Blvd., it features the world’s largest urban Supercharging station with 80 V4 stalls open to all NACS-compatible EVs, over 250 dining seats, rooftop views, and 24/7 service.

The retro-futuristic building replaced a former Shakey’s and quickly became a destination. Tesla reported selling 50,000 burgers in the first 72 days—an average of over 700 daily—drawing crowds with Cybertruck-shaped packaging, breakfast extensions until 2 p.m., and movie screenings.

Palo Alto stands out as a logical next step for several reasons. As Tesla’s longstanding engineering headquarters in the heart of Silicon Valley, the city is home to thousands of Tesla employees, engineers, and executives who could benefit from a convenient, branded gathering spot.

The area boasts high EV adoption rates, dense tech talent, and heavy traffic along key corridors, making a large Supercharger-diner an ideal fit for both daily commuters and long-haul travelers.

Proximity to Stanford University and the innovation ecosystem would amplify its appeal, potentially serving as a showcase for Tesla’s vision of integrated mobility and lifestyle experiences. It could be a great way for Tesla to recruit new talent from one of the country’s best universities.

If Tesla and Musk decide to move forward with a Palo Alto diner, it would build directly on the LA prototype’s momentum while addressing Musk’s earlier calls for expansion near core Tesla hubs.

Whether it materializes as a full confirmation or evolves from these hints remains to be seen, but the pattern is clear: Tesla is testing ways to make charging stops memorable. For EV drivers and enthusiasts alike, a Silicon Valley outpost could blend cutting-edge tech with nostalgic comfort, further embedding Tesla into everyday culture. As Musk’s comments suggest, the future of the Diner looks promising.

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