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The Electric Six: America’s Top EV Companies
The Electric Six: America’s Top EV Companies
Laura Ross
4/29/2024 | 5 min read
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The Electric Six: America’s Top EV Companies

A record 1.2 million electric vehicles (EVs) were sold in the U.S. last year, 7.6% of all automobiles sold. With the Biden Administration’s push on electric-powered cars and investment in a reliable EV charging network across America, automakers have answered the call. Now, the EV space is more crowded than ever, with established automakers and niche startups jostling to compete.

Yet there are concerns across the industry: in a climate of high inflation and interest rates, coupled with concerns over a lack of charging stations in rural parts of the U.S. and serious competition from EVs developed in China, consumer appetite for expensive EVs is waning.

These six companies have their own successes and challenges – each telling a different part of America’s story in the EV space.
1. Tesla: The MVP of EV

The brand name synonymous with the richest man on the planet is by far the most valuable EV company worldwide, with a market capitalization of over $550 billion as of April 2024. In fact, Elon Musk’s Tesla is the 15th largest company of any kind when ranked by market cap.

A pioneer that exploded into the electric automotive space, Tesla’s focus on the range, performance, and autonomous driving capabilities of its vehicles, as well as convenience with its Supercharger network and wireless software updates, has contributed to its multiple sales records. This includes producing the first EV, Model Y, to hold the title of best-selling car worldwide.

Tesla has certainly had its challenges, beset by lawsuits and whistleblower allegations, and competition from Chinese rival BYD – which outsold Tesla on EVs in the final quarter of 2023. A sales downturn – despite price slashes aimed at staving off the competition – has just prompted a 10% cut in its global workforce.
2. Rivian: A Sense of Adventure

Self-styled as a maker of electric “adventure” vehicles, Rivian brought consumers the first fully electric pickup in 2021, and introduced a software update a year later called Camp Mode (this enables the wheels of its trucks and SUVs to make custom adjustments when parked on uneven terrain).

The Amazon-backed company is also rolling out 100,000 electric delivery vehicles to numerous U.S. cities by 2030. These vans have already delivered more than 260 million packages.

Capitalizing on these kinds of gaps in the EV market has brought Rivian success: its IPO was one of the largest in U.S. history when the company went public in 2021; by 2022, it was on TIME’s List of 100 Most Influential Companies. But the EV startup has since faced a 90% drop in its initial value (market cap is now under $9 billion), staff cuts, and stiff competition from Ford.
3. Ford: An Eye to Affordability

Despite losing the race to Rivian on e-pickups, Ford has this year slashed the price of some variants of its electric truck – the F-150 Lightning, which motoring program Top Gear describes as “the most important EV in America” – and has even offered a rebate incentive for Tesla owners looking to switch to a Ford vehicle.

Affordability is a crucial factor for the 120-year-old Detroit automaker as it looks to position itself within a competitive EV market. In the fall of 2023, Ford announced it was reassessing its planned $12 billion investment in EV manufacturing; CEO Jim Farley said customers are “not willing to pay a significant premium for EVs.”

Ford sold a record 72,000 all-electric vehicles in the U.S. last year, second only to Tesla – but at a loss of over $4 billion. The company will likely focus more on hybrids in the short term, but in February Farley revealed a secret team developing smaller, low-cost EVs.
4. Lucid Motors: The Lap of Luxury

With sleek, mega-powerful sedan cars boasting top speeds of over 200 mph, the largest frunk (frontal trunk) on the market, the ability to go 0-60 mph in less than two seconds and drive over 500 miles before needing a recharge, the Lucid Motors brand oozes luxury – and has the price tag to boot. The Lucid Air model ranges from $71,400 to $250,500.

Although headquartered in California, since Lucid went public in 2021 it has been 60% owned by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia – part of the kingdom’s attempt to diversify away from oil.

Despite such backing, the company – like many other EV startups – has struggled in a climate of reduced interest in expensive electric. Lucid plans to improve its fortunes by stepping up production in its Saudi Arabia factory (the country’s first-ever car manufacturing facility), including a smaller, more affordable vehicle from 2026.
5. Canoo: High-Profile Partnerships

The four astronauts on Artemis II – NASA’s first crewed lunar mission in 50 years – will travel the nine miles to the launch pad, along with their equipment and a support team, in all-electric Crew Transportation Vehicles custom-built by California-based startup Canoo.

The company has become reliant on federal partnerships: as well as NASA, Canoo is delivering EVs to the U.S. Army and high-capacity battery packs to the Department of Defense. It also supplies electric delivery vans to Walmart.
6. General Motors: An All-Electric Future

The largest automaker in the U.S. — a title it held for 90 years until it was briefly usurped by Toyota in 2021 – plans to go all-electric by 2035. General Motors (GM) has had numerous successes in the EV space. Its EV1, initiated in 1990, was the first mass-produced modern EV by a legacy carmaker (though GM ended up destroying many of the cars). In 2010 its Chevy Volt was revolutionary – a hybrid sedan powered by battery, with some backup from a small gasoline engine (the main competition, the Toyota Prius, was the other way around). The Chevy Bolt, marketed in 2017 as the most affordable EV available, became one of the most popular.

GM has, however, scaled back its ambitions for EV production. CEO Mary Barra has not reneged on the 2035 target but announced a shift towards plug-in hybrids in the interim; she added that GM will be guided by customer demand.

Image Source: William A. Morgan
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