New ZEV Sales in California

ZEV: Zero Emission Vehicles, includes BEVs, PHEVs, and FCEVs

BEV: Battery Electric Vehicle

PHEV: Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles

FCEV: Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles

Non-ZEV: Non- Zero Emission Vehicles

MSA: Metropolitan Statistical Area

Data as of: June 30, 2024

Dashboard last updated: August 6, 2024

​Data Collection Information​

• Changes to Determining a New Vehicle Sale
  The DMV data does not currently identify a vehicle registration as a “new vehicle sold.” A new vehicle “sale” must be inferred by data analysis. CEC staff have updated the method for 2021 and onward to include registrations that have an odometer reading of less than 120 miles and a model year of one year before or one year after the year of the registration year. The previous method allowed registrations from older vehicles with low odometer readings, but staff have found data quality issues with this method that became problematic around 2023.
   
• Frequency of Historic Data Collection
  Year. Prior to 2018, the DMV provided the CEC with database snapshots twice a year, in April and October. Starting In 2018, the DMV began providing quarterly database snapshots allowing CEC staff to align the sales and population counts with the calendar year. However, transitioning to calendar year causes a discontinuity in the counts from 2016 to 2017, where 2017 includes registrations from October 2016 through the end of December 2017.
  
  Additionally, registrations of new vehicles may take up to three weeks to be processed by DMV. Thus, vehicles purchased at the end of a reporting period may not be reflected until the subsequent snapshot. This is corrected for at year-end for both population and sales by updating the January database with the April database to capture vehicles that registered at the end of the previous year.
  
  Lastly, data to determine total light-duty vehicle sales prior to 2011 are unavailable.
   
• Regional Data Categories
  Map Filter. Data can be reflected at the county, metropolitan statistical area (MSA), or ZIP code level. Individual registrations were assigned to a region based on mailing address, with the following exceptions:
  • Out of State: vehicles registered in California with a mailing address in a different state
  • ZIP Code “99999”: indicates that the ZIP code in the Vehicle Registration database was invalid
  • Unassigned: remote areas not associated with an MSA
  • Unknown: Invalid ZIP codes categorized under MSA

Citing​
Please cite use of these data and images. California Energy Commission (2024). New ZEV Sales in California. Data last updated [insert date last updated]. Retrieved [insert date retrieved] from https://www.energy.ca.gov/zevstats.