If US electric vehicle sales keep growing at 68% per year, electric cars would be 28% of new US car sales in 2025.
Resolved true The record shows it happened or was so.
Prediction: Statements about events outside the person's control, checked once they fell due: did they come true?
What would count as true or false
The claim is explicitly conditional. Step 1: find the actual year-on-year growth in US electric vehicle (EV) sales for 2023–2025, using the battery-electric measure the claim's base figure used (about 5.8% share in 2022). If growth averaged roughly 68% a year (55–80%), judge on the actual 2025 EV share of US new car sales: true if 25–31%, mostly true if 23–25% or 31–33%, mostly false if 18–23% or above 33%, false if below 18%. Step 2: if growth did not average roughly 68%, the condition failed and the claim is judged on its arithmetic. Take the 2022 base share and compound it at 68% a year for three years. True if the result is within ±2 points of 28%, mostly true if within ±4 points, false otherwise. In this second case, the actual 2025 share differing from 28% does not falsify the claim.
Set before the research began.
Evidence (4)
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E1 Despite Q4 Collapse, 2025 EV Sales Decline Only 2% Versus 2024; Policy Shifts, New Product Set Stage for Next Chapter - Cox Automotive Inc. Cox Automotive Inc. · 4 May 2026
“total EV sales last year came in just shy of 2024’s 1.30 million. In fact, 2025 was the second-best year on record for EV sales in the U.S., and the EV share of total market sales was a strong 7.8%, down from 8.1% a year earlier”
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E2 Column: Robot taxis? Hyperloops? A top technologist wages war on tech's hype machine Los Angeles Times · 20 January 2023
“The growth rate in EV sales became turbocharged in 2022 — increasing by 68% in the third quarter over the same quarter a year earlier. If that growth rate continued, then EVs would constitute 28% of new car sales in 2025.”
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E3 In a Down Market, EV Sales Soar to New Record - Cox Automotive Inc. Cox Automotive Inc. · 13 January 2023
“sales volumes past 800,000 for the first time, according to Kelley Blue Book estimates, an increase of 65% versus 2021. EV share of the total market hit 5.8%, up from 3.2% in 2021.”
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E4 EV Model Availability and Sales | Argonne National Laboratory Argonne National Laboratory · 24 November 2025
“Over 1.5 million EVs were sold in 2024, an 8% increase over last year.”
Reasoning
E3 puts US EV sales in 2022 just over 800,000, a 5.8% share. E1 reports 2025 EV sales about 2% lower than 2024's roughly 1.30 million, with a 7.8% share. So growth from 2023 to 2025 fell far short of 68% a year, and the claim's condition did not hold. Under step 2 of the criteria, the claim is judged on its arithmetic: 5.8% × 1.68³ ≈ 27.5%, which is within 2 points of the 28% the claim gives. E2 confirms that 28% was the projection made.
Cite this claim
Rodney Brooks, “If US electric vehicle sales keep growing at 68% per year, electric cars would be 28% of new US car sales in 2025.” (said 1 January 2023). Verdict: resolved true. Reliability API, claim c_02baf92fca64, method 0.1.0+c876030c, dataset release v1.1.2. https://epistacklabs.com/claims/c_02baf92fca64
This claim is in dataset release v1.1.2, with the same verdict.
Reply to this claim
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