Unexpected winners and losers emerge in 'eco-friendly' car adoption

Fuel efficiency, hybrid sales and electric vehicle demand continue to improve across the U.S., thanks to the emergence of some unexpected champions for eco-friendly adoption.

Driving the news: Consumers are opting for fuel-efficient, hybrid and electric cars in greater numbers, leading to a sharp uptick in average miles-per-gallon (MPG) and green vehicle market share. Interestingly, states with some of the poorest eco-friendly sales prior to the pandemic have since seen some of the fastest growth in demand, according to iSeeCars.

• Arkansas leads the U.S. in both MPG improvements and eco-friendly car adoption. The average MPG in the state this year was 30.1 miles, a 31.7% increase since 2019. In the same timeframe, the state’s EV and hybrid market share skyrocketed from 0.9% to 8.9%, an 875.4% improvement.

• Louisiana and New Jersey take second and third place, respectively, in green vehicle adoption, with the former seeing a 299.1% increase in market share and the latter seeing a 285.8% increase.

• The second and third-best states for MPG improvements are Washington and California, which saw respective improvements of 21.9% and 19.4%. Karl Brauer, executive analyst at iSeeCars notes that’s especially significant since both states “were already above the national MPG average in 2019, making their high growth over the last five years more challenging and even more impressive.”

Zooming in: At the same time, while eco-friendly adoption and average MPG rose across most of the U.S., some states continue to lag behind, especially when looking exclusively at fully electric models.

• Despite its reputation as an EV-heavy region, California was 14th overall for the smallest growth in electric car adoption.

• This pattern holds true for many reputed EV hotspots: Hawaii and Oregon had much higher electric car market shares than other states in 2019 (both at 1%). This year, they ranked second and third for the worst improvements in adoption, growing at less than half the national speed.

• South Carolina had the poorest EV growth overall, recording a market share of just 0.7% in 2024. The national share of fully electric vehicles is 2.5%.

Bottom line: It’s interesting to see how the growth of EV, hybrid and high-MPG vehicles varies across the U.S. and how the actual numbers may contradict what we’ve come to expect. At the same time, it’s important to note that the market is still in its early years: things could look very different over the next decade.

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