North American EV Production Is Slowly Catching Up to Demand
By the end of 2022, fully electric vehicles accounted for 7% of North American car production, up from 4.7% a year earlier.
An employee works on a Ford Motor Co. F-Series truck at the Ford Dearborn Truck Plant in Dearborn, Michigan.
Photographer: Jeff Kowalsky/AFP/Getty ImagesIt’s been almost a year since the Volkswagen factory in Tennessee went fully electric. Last July, the 12-year-old plant, located between Couch’s Barbeque and Fat Boy’s Roadside Eats in Chattanooga, made 25 of Volkswagen’s ID.4 electric SUV, the first US production of the automaker’s first mass-market EV. By December, the factory was stamping out 100 ID.4s every day.
Electric vehicle production in North America is finally creeping up on EV demand, as industry incumbents like Volkswagen flex their manufacturing muscles. While newcomers such Lucid and Rivian are hustling to catch up to Tesla (and to their own targets), the old guard is quickly closing the production gap with the longtime EV frontrunner.