California continued to lead the U.S. in electric-vehicle adoption last year with about 29% of the country’s new-EV sales market, and adoption wasn’t reserved to the more populous coastal regions.
A report by London-based EV data provider Rho Motion shows nationwide EV penetration at a comparatively low 10% last year.
Though California represents 11% of U.S. vehicle sales across all power trains, its gaining on a third of EV sales alone demonstrates its continued lead in alternative-fuel auto adoption.
The top EV adoption rates in the state were centered in the generally affluent San Francisco Bay area, with the high coming in Marin County at a 40% share, Rho Motion reported. The state capital of Sacramento clocked in at 28%, similar to several Southern California counties in the Los Angeles region, from 27% in L.A. County and 26% in San Diego County to 31% in Orange County.
But even Republican-leaning inland counties – the party under the clean-energy-averse Trump administration has tilted away from EVs – have higher adoption rates, Placer County at 28% and El Dorado at 23%, Rho Motion said.
Despite California’s leading EV position, adoption in the Golden State hasn’t accelerated as much as many market watchers had anticipated. Pullback of federal incentives under Trump, including the end of tax breaks this month, could slow it further.
California EV sales share pales in comparison to some European counties, including Norway’s 80%, Sweden’s 54% and Denmark’s 51%, though it exceeds some other western European countries, among them France and Austria’s 22% and Germany’s 19%, according to Rho Motion.
“… the high population counties around the Bay Area and L.A. will always be looked on as trailblazers in the space and need to see progress to the next level to lead the way and continue to drive up the state average,” Rho Motion said in its report.
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