The average price of electric cars in the United States reached $66,000 last month – an increase of more than 13% year over year. This is a bit disappointing as the promise has been that the prices of electric vehicles would come down, but this price increase is not the whole story.
One of the biggest complaints about electric vehicles remains their prices. They are out of reach for most consumers, even with subsidies.
To be fair, most new cars aren’t a smart buy for most people, and EVs are chasing the new car market. But there’s also the factor that many automakers that entered the EV space started with more expensive segments, resulting in EVs being more expensive on average.
Now on top of that, there is out-of-control inflation that is driving up the price of everything – including electric cars. Kelley Blue Book is out with a new report tracking average car prices across the United States. Their report confirms that the average EB price increased 13.7% to $66,000:
The average price paid for a new electric vehicle (EV) increased in June by 3.8% compared to May and 13.7% compared to a year ago. The average price for a new electric vehicle — over $66,000, according to Kelley Blue Book estimates — is well above the industry average and more in line with luxury versus mainstream pricing.
That’s a significant year-on-year increase, but it’s in line with price increases for the wider car market, which rose 12.7% to $48,043 last month.
Of course, the $18,000 difference in average price isn’t a great comparison since gasoline vehicles are offered in a much larger model variety and in more categories than EVs, which again, tend to be more premium and luxury models.
However, the actual cost of ownership is remarkably close to average after accounting for gas savings.
KBB released the average transaction prices for each brand, and Tesla is up almost 12% over the past year:
| PRODUCER | June 2022 The transaction PRICE (average)* |
May 2022 The transaction PRICE (average)* |
June 2021 The transaction PRICE (average)* |
months- over- month PERCENT CHANGING |
year- over- year PERCENT CHANGING |
| BMW | $66,390 | $66,176 | $59,326 | 0.3% | 11.9% |
| Daimler | 76601 dollars | $76,172 | $66,226 | 0.6% | 15.7% |
| Ford Motor Company | $54,602 | $52,135 | $50,364 | 4.7% | 8.4% |
| Geely Auto Group | $60,512 | $61,322 | $53,165 | -1.3% | 13.8% |
| General Motors | $50,357 | $50,636 | $48,707 | -0.6% | 3.4% |
| Honda Motor Company | $37,699 | $38,157 | $33,093 | -1.2% | 13.9% |
| Hyundai Motor Group | $36,161 | $35,946 | 31 834 dollars | 0.6% | 13.6% |
| Mazda Motor Corporation | $29,953 | $30,746 | 31 587 dollars | -2.6% | -5.2% |
| The Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance | $35,496 | $36,239 | $32,225 | -2.1% | 10.2% |
| Rivian | $72,902 | $72,973 | – | -0.1% | – |
| sidereal | $53,976 | $53,997 | $49,729 | 0.0% | 8.5% |
| Subaru Corporation | $35,194 | $33,814 | $35,212 | 4.1% | -0.1% |
| Tata Motors | $84,808 | $88,218 | $80,719 | -3.9% | 5.1% |
| Tesla | $68,392 | $64,969 | $61,149 | 5.3% | 11.8% |
| Toyota Motor Corporation | $40,111 | $39,127 | $38,544 | 2.5% | 4.1% |
| The Volkswagen Group | 56629 dollars | $55,313 | $49,058 | 2.4% | 15.4% |
| industry | $48,043 | $47,275 | 42633 dollars | 1.6% | 12.7% |
But interestingly, Tesla’s average selling price is remarkably comparable to other premium automakers like BMW.
Electrek’s Take
We can’t really blame the EV market for these price hikes. Inflation is hitting almost every industry pretty hard. Once things calm down on this front, I think we’ll see improvements in EV pricing through economies of scale and lower battery costs.
Of course, if we look at the overall average selling price of electric vehicles, the models in the cheaper segments will be the biggest change maker. I’m talking about vehicles like the VW ID Life and the $20,000 Hyundai electric car.
At the same time, electric pickup trucks are likely to represent a significant portion of electric vehicle sales in the United States in the coming years, and that should increase the average.
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