See the 15 Worst Selling Electric Vehicles This Year

Special Report

Published: November 27, 2023 10:48 am

Last Updated: November 27, 2023 10:49 am

Electric vehicle sales in the U.S. continue to grow with more models introduced in 2023 than ever before. Tesla’s (NASDAQ: TSLA) four fully-electric models still dominate the market. More than half of EVs sold in the first nine months of the year went to Elon Musk’s pioneering battery-powered car company.

But sales of the Tesla Model S fell by nearly 43% in the first three quarters compared to the same period last year despite Tesla price cuts. Eight models, including the Hyundai Ioniq5, the BMW i4, and two Rivians (NASDAQ: RIVN), have outsold Tesla’s luxury sedan so far this year, according to data from Cox Automotive. Sales of the Tesla Model X luxury crossover electric SUV shrunk by 7%. It was outsold by the VW ID.4 crossover electric SUV, which costs significantly less. (Check out the 25 best selling EVs this year.)

Though Americans will buy one million EVs this year, demand hasn’t been as robust expected. One million EV sales sounds like a lot, but it’s a sliver of total new-vehicle purchases. For example, Ford (NYSE: F) sold about 573,000 F-Series pickup trucks in the first nine months of the year compared to about 873,000 battery powered SUVs, trucks, and cars from 27 brands in the same period of time.

Worst selling EVs of 2023

Aside from Teslas, only a dozen EV models have sold more than 10,000 units in 2023 through September. This includes luxury EVs like the Mercedes EQE sedan as well as the sub-$30,000 electric Chevy Bolt. Sales of the Kia EV6 crossover SUV fell by nearly 17% to 14,798 so far this year compared to the first three quarters of 2022. The Nissan Leaf was once the world’s bestselling EV at the vanguard of affordable electric cars. But sales of the compact EV plunged by nearly 35% to just 5,804 units in the first nine months of the year.

And despite low sales volumes, these models are considered among the best-selling EVs in the U.S. right now. Among the 42 EV models that reported U.S. sales this year, 15 have sold fewer than 5,800 vehicles in the world’s second-largest automotive market. This list of duds includes the Audi Q8 e-tron luxury crossover SUV, whose sales plunged by 54% to 4,960 units. Two models have sold fewer than 1,000 vehicles so far this year.

Here are the 25 worst-selling EVs in the U.S., listed by highest-to-lowest number of deliveries. Sales data is provided by Kelley Blue Book (Cox Automotive). Some models were introduced for 2023 and do not have sales data for the first nine months of 2022. Some of these EVs were introduced for the 2023 model year and lack 2022 comparisons. New vehicle models tend to sell better in their first year, so low volume sales out of the gate doesn’t bode well.