Jul 5, 2022 - News

Electric vehicles are on the rise in Seattle

Data: S&P Global Mobility; Chart: Jared Whalen/Axios

Drivers in and around Seattle have embraced electric vehicles more than those across much of the country, new research shows.

Driving the news: Data compiled by S&P Global Mobility shows that in April, electric vehicles made up 11.2% of new vehicles registered in the Seattle metro area.

  • That's far more than in Minneapolis-St. Paul, for instance, where 2.7% of April vehicle registrations were EVs, or in Denver, where 6.2% of vehicles registered that month were electric.

Why it matters: Consumer interest in electric vehicles is at a global tipping point, with more than half of car buyers saying in a recent survey they want their next car to be an EV, Axios' Joann Muller writes.

  • Looking at recent vehicle registrations provides a snapshot of national and local trends in the expanding EV market.
Data: S&P Global Mobility (formerly IHS Markit); Chart: Baidi Wang/Axios

What they found: Tesla dominated Seattle's EV market in April, manufacturing three of the top five most registered electric models in the metro area, per S&P Global Mobility.

  • All told, about 62% of new EVs registered here in April were Teslas, the analysis found.

The big picture: EVs recently cracked 5% of all newly registered vehicles nationwide.

  • That's up from less than 1% in 2017 — but still a ways behind Seattle.

Yes, but: Seattle trails big cities in California when it comes to the share of newly registered vehicles that are EVs (think: San Francisco, San Diego and Los Angeles).

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