Tesla remains the top EV brand in Michigan, with 2,594 vehicles registered from January to October. However, its market share has dipped from about 53 percent of all Michigan EV registrations through the first 10 months of 2020 to about 43 percent during the same period in 2021.
Jessica Caldwell, executive director of insights at Edmunds, said Ford’s success in Michigan stems in part from the automaker’s significant presence in the state. Ford employees and retirees, as well as many employees of Ford’s suppliers, get discounts that make the Mach-E less expensive to buy, she said.
“When you think of all of the suppliers in Michigan that get some sort of friends-and-family type of deal, I think that makes sense,” she said.
But Ford’s tailwind might also be coming from the Mach-E’s appeal to both current Tesla owners and first-time EV buyers, Caldwell said. While the figures remain relatively low, the percentage of Teslas being traded in for Fords has risen over the past year, she said.
“People are quick to crown Tesla the king of the EVs, but it feels like it’s so early in this race to call it,” she said. “A lot of these buyers are more early adopters, so if something else cool comes along, I could see them abandoning Tesla and going for whatever the new, cool, shiny object is.”
