(Reuters) – Electric vehicle (EV) sales in the U.S. are expected to reach just 9 percent of the market this year, consulting firm JD Power said in a report released on Wednesday, lowering its previous forecast of 12 percent.
The automotive consultant attributed the reduction in sales forecast to a slower-than-expected growth rate for the first half of 2024, which is due to increasing competition in the market for alternatives to gasoline-powered vehicles.
The revised forecast comes days after Ford Motor announced it was abandoning a planned three-row electric SUV and shelving a new electric version of its best-selling pickup truck, the F-150, as it focused on cutting costs to boost demand.
Despite the near-term slowdown, the consulting firm expects electric vehicle sales to reach 36% of the total U.S. retail market by 2030 and 58% by 2035.
“The current lower-than-expected sales volume is due to a combination of relatively short-term variables that will ease as electric vehicle adoption continues to reach critical mass,” JD Power said.
Ford, General Motors and other automakers have also delayed or canceled the release of new electric models to avoid spending too much money on vehicles that consumers are not buying as quickly as expected.
(Reporting by Nilutpal Timsina and Rhea Rose Abraham in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich)
