Drop in Colorado car sales brightened by electrics

The EV6 all-electric helped Kia to sales gain in 2022. (Bud Wells photos)

New-car sales in Colorado, like elsewhere in the country, took a hit in 2022 – all except the oncoming electrics.

“We’re seeing a substantial increase in registrations of battery electric (BEV) and hybrid vehicles in our state,” said Tim Jackson, president of the Colorado Automobile Dealers Association.

While total registrations declined from 223,985 in 2021 to 194,188, a drop of 13.3 percent, the electrics and hybrids jumped 25 percent to 34,416.

Led by Tesla, market share by the battery electric vehicles climbed to 8.1 percent on 15,818 registrations in 2022, an increase of 48 percent from the previous year.  Gas/electric hybrid vehicles claimed 7.2 percent of the market in ’22 and plug-in hybrid vehicles earned 2.4 percent. Tesla registrations climbed to 8,226 in Colorado, an increase of 1,695 units from 2021.

Toyota’s big seller was the Rav4 SUV crossover.

Kia was the lone brand to show significant increase last year over 2021, a gain of 695 units; Mitsubishi gained by 56 units and Mini Cooper by 34. Major losses were Honda by 6,719 units, Ford 3,121, Subaru 3,093, Ram 2,897, Chevrolet 2,695, Jeep 2,055 and Buick 1,028. 

Toyota, Ford and Subaru were top three brands in registrations for the year.

  1. Toyota led with 28,031 registrations;
  2. Ford had 21,960;
  3. Subaru 18,170;
  4. Chevrolet 12,515;
  5. Hyundai 10,944;
  6. Jeep 10,719;
  7. Honda 10,595;
  8. Kia 10,178;
  9. Tesla 8,226;
  10. GMC 7,790;
  11. Ram 7,735;
  12. Nissan 7,177;
  13. Volkswagen 6,389;
  14. Mazda 5,372;
  15. BMW 4,456;
  16. Mercedes 3,796;
  17. Audi 3,323;
  18. Lexus 3,222;
  19. Volvo 2,042;
  20. Dodge 1,116;
  21. Cadillac 1,109;
  22. Acura, 1,061;
  23. Buick 1,042;
  24. Porsche 1,010;
  25. Lincoln 944;
  26. Land Rover 865;
  27. Genesis 634;
  28. Mini Cooper 604;
  29. Mitsubishi 573;
  30. Infiniti 571;
  31. Chrysler 359;
  32. Jaguar 153;
  33. Alfa Romeo 110;
  34. Maserati 78.
Mitsubishi edged Infiniti for 29th place in sales (shown is Outlander).

Among individual models, the top five sellers in 2022 were the:

  • Ford F-series,
  • Toyota RAV4,
  • Ram pickup,
  • Subaru Crosstrek and
  • Chevy Silverado.

Interestingly, only 13.1 percent of sales in the U.S. last year were cars, the other 86.9 percent were pickups and SUVs.