Month: March 2025

Plug-in vehicle sales last month were up 14.9% over February 2024 in the U.S.; that breaks down to 94,464 battery electric vehicles and 21,956 plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. Overall, 227,805 plug-in vehicles have been sold in 2025.

Over 1.5M PEVs were sold in 2024, an increase of over 7% from 2023 sales. BEVs generally account for 80% of the PEV sales in the U.S. That data is compiled by Argonne’s Systems Assessment Center and reported to the U.S. Dept. of Energy’s Vehicle Technology Program Office.  

Tesla has probably lost U.S. sales to General Motors this year and some of last year, but both companies won’t be reporting 2025 numbers until quarterly reports are released. Ford, Hyundai, Kia and Honda have all reported growth in EV sales in their monthly reports. Ford EVs were up 15% year-over-year in February. American Honda sold nearly 3,000 Prologues and 1,500 Acura ZDXs last month. Hyundai and Kia’s are doing well, with the Ioniq 5, Ioniq 6 and EV9 seeing year-over-year gains. The Volkswagen ID.4 was the third best-selling EV in the U.S. in January after the Tesla Model Y and Model 3, according to Rho Motion.

While the US Clean Vehicle Tax Credit is yet to be removed, Congress is now considering bills that would take away EV tax credits, says Rho Motion.

Global EV sales are also doing well, up 30% in the January through February 2025 time period, reaching 2.4 million units sold. Much of that is coming from China, making up 1.4 million of that total. BEVs saw 46% growth in Chinese EV sales, while PHEVs grew 22%.

Musk feeling the backlash: Police are investigating how and why an assailant wearing black clothing set fire to two Teslas at a Las Vegas showroom on March 18. The phrase “RESIST” was spray-painted on the Tesla showroom entrance in red letters, police said. The FBI said it’s investigating the March 18 attack as a possible act of terrorism given what appear to be political overtones, according to Automotive News.

There have also been peaceful protests around the country tied to Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s heading of the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in Washington. In addition to those protests, there have been fires set against Tesla Superchargers in Boston and shots fired at an Oregon showroom, in addition to other attacks this month, according to local news reports.

Sacramento event on clean transportation policy: CALSTART’s 12th Annual California Summit will be held on Monday, March 24, 2025, in Sacramento from 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. This event will bring together leaders from the clean transportation industry, California lawmakers, and key decision-makers to discuss what strategic actions are needed to sustain the growth of zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) and infrastructure across California and beyond. A key focus will be on how transportation is being decarbonized and tailpipe emissions reduced and eventually eliminated to support cleaner air and economic benefits to local communities. What solutions are available during a time when clean transportation and climate policies are going through a shift at the federal level?

What’s happening to electric vehicle giant Tesla? Will China’s BYD solidify its EV market share dominance this year like last year? Is it all about the controversial role CEO Elon Musk has taken in the Trump administration?

The 2025 sales numbers have been poor for Tesla, as you can see in this chart. U.S. sales numbers won’t come out from Tesla until April for the first quarter.

Automotive News reports that Tesla’s stock has eroded by $700 billion as sales slide globally in the wake of what it calls the ‘Trump bump.’

Tesla was the world’s biggest producer of battery electric vehicles in 2024, but sales dropped to 1.79 million, the first time the company has endured a sales decline since 2011 after years of rapid growth that made it the world’s most valuable carmaker, according to The Guardian. The Tesla Model Y was the biggest selling EV in the world in January at 66,536 units sold in globally. Number two was the BYD Song / Seal U at 47,502 units sold, according to CleanTechnica. The Tesla Model 3 came in at No. 4 on the list, with 27,772 units sold.

In 2024, Cox Automotive estimates that Tesla sold 38,965 Cybertrucks. The company said the Cybertruck became profitable for the first time with a positive gross margin during Q3 2024.

According to recent data from the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association, Tesla sales across the European Union, European Free Trade Association, and the United Kingdom declined to 9,945 in February from 18,161 in January 2024.

Some possible reasons for Tesla’s sales decline:

Politics: California is Tesla’s largest U.S. market, and tends to be more liberal politically. Its California sales dropped almost 8% in the fourth quarter of 2024, and 12% for the year. His backing of a right-wing party in Germany seems to be hurting him. Ahead of Germany’s February election, Musk advocated for the far-right Alternative for Germany party and said at a virtual event for the party that there’s “too much of a focus on past guilt” in that country. There are also signs of him being condemned by a number of environmental and political groups, and celebrities, in the U.S. and Europe, according to social media posts, which is hurting sales.

Chinese competition: Though Tesla also saw a steep dive in February sales, compared to a year earlier, observers say that’s more likely explained by increased competition from inexpensive Chinese competitors. BYD’s Seagull is a popular, inexpensive EV with a starting price of around $9,500, and a range of up to 252 miles. 

Changing market: Rising competition and the decision by some consumers to wait for a new Tesla model could be playing a role in the dip in sales abroad. GM said that 2024 was its best year for EV sales ever, selling about 114,000 EVs, a 50% gain over 2023. Ford said that for least year, each of its EVs (the Mustang Mach-E, F-150 Lightning and E-Transit) set sales records. Hyundai and its Kia brand have also seen EV sales surge.

And in other news……..

Rivian rolling out R2 SUV soon: Rivian has high hopes for its upcoming midsize R2 electric SUV. Starting at about $45,000, the R2 is about half the cost of its current R1S large SUV and R1T pickup models. The company says that it will be the launch pad for taking the brand to overseas sales.

CFO Claire McDonough said Rivian is “working around the clock” to expand its Normal, IL, manufacturing plant for the upcoming R2. The sourcing for R2 is now about 95% complete, and production is scheduled to start in the first half of 2026. It will be followed by the smaller R3 and sporty R3X crossover. That part will happen at its new Georgia plant. That facility will start production in 2028, McDonough said.

NACFE paper on the ‘messy middle’: The North American Council for Freight Efficiency (NACFE) has released a white paper, Navigating the Messy Middle: The Move to More Sustainable Trucking.

“I liken the Messy Middle to a smorgasbord where fleets have a wide variety of options,” says Mike Roeth, NACFE’s executive director. “It can seem like an overwhelming number of choices, and we wrote this white paper to bring some clarity to the current situation.”

NACFE first began using the term Messy Middle in 2018 to describe the time between now and when trucking gets to a zero-emission future. In addition, the defining the Messy Middle, the white paper provides a brief overview of the various powertrain options available to fleets today.

The new leader of the ‘Department of Government Efficiency,’ or DOGE, thinks he can cut $2 trillion from the current $6.75T federal budget.

Elon Musk, now officially a “special government employee” serving the White House, also has a few other jobs. He’s CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, executive chairman and CTO of X Corp. (X, formerly known as Twitter), owner of Neuralink, and head of xAI, which produces the Grok AI-powered assistant. Don’t forget the Starlink satellite network, which is operated by SpaceX.

Musk has been known to be tough with employees on budget cuts, as has been experienced by Tesla factory workers who previously tried to unionize. When Musk acquired Twitter in 2022, he laid off more than 6,000 employees — about 80% of the company’s staff.

He just had his fourth child with Neuralink executive Shivon Zilis, for a total of 14 who range in age from just born to twins Griffin and Vivian who were born in 2004; and whose mother is ex-wife Justine Wilson. Musk’s 4-year-old son, X Æ A-Xii, often called Lil X, went to the White House with him on Feb. 11 to meet with the president, as you can see in the photo above.

How could he possibly find time to do all of it? For one thing, other executives have been running his companies for years and they work very long hours, as does Musk. Most recently, he’s been assembling a team to carry out duties at DOGE; and that number has ranged from 40 to 100, according to Musk’s comments.

Questions and concerns have been floating across the internet and in Washington, D.C., about whether Musk will be getting any special deals for his companies due to campaign donations (about $250 million) and playing a high-level role in the Trump administration. One controversy that recently surfaced was that Musk posted comments on X criticizing Verizon for subpar work on a new communications system for the Federal Aviation Administration. He pitched his Starlink tech service as at least a temporary solution, according to Politico.

As for the latest developments beyond cutting staff from federal agencies, here are a few interesting ones……………

Latest on robotaxis: Tesla applied late last year for a permit with California regulators to launch an autonomous ride-hailing service, similar to what Waymo has been doing in San Francisco and Los Angeles through its Waymo One app. The automaker currently has the approval to test autonomous vehicles with a safety driver in California, but this application that was submitted to California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) late last year, is seeking a transportation charter-party carrier permit. The company’s still waiting for the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles to issue a permit for autonomous vehicle testing or operations, which would be needed for Tesla to offer a robotaxi service in California, according to Bloomberg news.

Musk in January said Tesla would begin offering “autonomous ride-hailing for money” in Austin this June. Musk showed off Tesla’s Cybercab concept last October, which could be used for driverless rides in California; and he turned down an offer recently from the Uber CEO to jointly operate a robotaxi service.

Tesla is very committed to rolling out it fully autonomous vehicles as soon as it gains regulatory approval from the U.S. Dept. of Transportation, state governments, and any other necessary government agencies. That will continue to be the subject of scrutiny over whether any special favors are granted to Musk by the feds.

Financial performance: Tesla’s revenue grew to nearly $98.68 billion in 2024, a slight percentage increase from the previous year. Net income for 2024 was $7.1 billion, a 53% decline from 2023.

The company sold 1,789,226 vehicles in 2024, which was a 1.1% decrease from 2023, said Axios.com. In the fourth quarter, the automaker produced approximately 459,000 vehicles, delivered over 495,000 vehicles and deployed 11.0 GWh of energy storage products – a record for both deliveries and deployments, the company said.

The Tesla Model Y was the best-selling model in 2024, selling 1.09 million copies worldwide. The U.S. is Tesla’s largest sales market. Tesla sold 63,238 units of its electric cars in January in China, down 11.5% from the 71.447 cars sold in the same month last year. The futuristic Cybertruck was the best-selling electric pickup truck in the U.S. in 2024. However, sales were lower than expected due to the truck’s high price and slowing demand. Tesla sold 38,965 Cybertrucks last year, and the average transaction price in September was $116,706.

What’s up with Starlink? SpaceX, a space launch provider which Musk led prior to starting up with Tesla, has been staying very active; one analyst puts SpaceX’s sales at $13.3 billion in 2024, a more than 50% increase over the previous year. Its Starlink satellite network has been doing very well as a source of low-cost internet services ending up in remote locations. The company hopes to have about 42,000 satellites out in orbit eventually; as of February, on astronomer reported tracking 7,086 Starlink satellites in orbit.

Musk is always offering solutions from Starlink — such as the Verizon offer. Starlink assisted Ukraine in its defense system communications earlier in its war with Russia. That will probably be placed on hold as Trump continues engaging in verbal battles with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Protesters come to SpaceX HQ: Hundreds of protestors with signs on Saturday said Musk was “undermining democracy” with his actions as an unelected official. That took place outside SpaceX’s corporate headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif., in the Los Angeles area. They had plenty to say about the world’s wealthiest man, and his new boss, President Trump. Protesters and others want to see if Musk and Trump can stay in agreement on key issues. Musk may not get what he wants from the Trump administration on carbon-free energy and anything that could support his EV sales and solar power, batteries, and energy storage.

(Editor’s note: The word out there is that Musk is not the wealthiest individual in the world — just the wealthiest of those reporting their income).