Hybrid vehicle sales continue to rise as electric and plug-in vehicle shares remain flat
About 22% of light-duty vehicles sold in the first quarter of the year in the United States were hybrid, battery electric, or plug-in hybrid vehicles, up from about 18% in the first quarter of 2024. Among those categories, hybrid electric vehicles have continued to gain market share while battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid vehicles have remained relatively flat, according to estimates from Wards Intelligence.
These different vehicle types affect the broader energy sector in different ways. Battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid vehicles can consume electricity from isolated power sources or, more commonly, from the grid. So, their use can affect electricity demand. By comparison, hybrid electric vehicles do not have plugs, so they don’t directly affect grid-delivered electricity demand.
The decrease in electric vehicle sales was driven by declining sales of battery electric models such as the Honda Prologue, Chevrolet Equinox, and Tesla Model Y. These declines were partially offset by increased sales of other battery electric models, such as the Volkswagen ID.4 and Toyota bZ4X.
Battery electric vehicle sales in particular are more common in the luxury vehicle market. U.S. luxury vehicles accounted for 14% of the total light-duty vehicle market in the first quarter of the year, the lowest share since mid-2020. Electric vehicles accounted for 23% of total luxury sales in the first quarter of 2025. Electric vehicles had accounted for more than one-third of luxury sales in 2023 and 2024 before Wards reclassified the Tesla Model 3 as non-luxury in late 2024.
Battery electric vehicles’ average transaction prices remain persistently higher than the overall market: the average transaction prices increased from $55,500 in December 2024 to $59,200 in March 2025, compared with the average price of all new vehicles, which decreased from $49,700 to $47,500. This 25% difference between battery electric vehicles and the industry average prices in March 2025 was the highest in any month since April 2023.
Since sales figures in any year are relatively small compared with the total number of vehicles on the road, electric vehicles’ share of the total light-duty vehicle fleet is much less than the recent 10% sales share. In our Monthly Energy Review, we maintain annual data series on light-duty vehicles, battery electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid vehicles, and hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles based on data from S&P Global. In 2023, the most recent data year, electric vehicles accounted for less than 2% of all registered light-duty vehicles in the United States.
Principal contributor: Michael Dwyer
Tags: vehicles