Disposable vape sales jumped after FDA prioritized enforcement against pre-filled e-cigarette cartridges that were not tobacco or menthol flavored in 2020. Photo credit: Elfbar
New data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed e-cigarette sales in the US surged by 46.6% – from 15.5 million to 22.7 million units – during January 2020-December 2022.
The CDC study found that after January 2020, sales of disposable e-cigarettes with fruit, sweet, and other flavors increased while those of pre-filled cartridges with mint and other flavors were discontinued. The sale of disposable e-cigarettes with flavors that appeal to young people has surpassed that of pre-filled devices.
CDC, the CDC Foundation (the CDC's nonprofit, charitable arm), and the Truth Initiative carried out the study. The researchers analyzed retail scanner data from 2020 to 2022 to look at e-cigarette products, flavors, and top-selling brands in order to investigate the trends in e-cigarette use. However, the data in the study solely includes sales from physical stores and not online retailers or tobacco-specialty stores like vape shops.
The number of e-cigarette brands increased by 46.2% from 184 to 269 brands throughout the study's time frame, paralleling the rise in e-cigarette sales. The top five e-cigarette brands were Vuse, JUUL, Elf Bar, NJOY, and Breeze Smoke. Elf Bar was the top-selling disposable brand in the US.
Pre-filled e-cigarette sales fell from 75.2% to 48.0%, while disposable e-cigarette sales increased from 24.7% to 51.8% of total sales. According to the study, the changes resulted from an FDA announcement in 2020 that prioritized enforcement against pre-filled e-cigarette cartridges that were not tobacco or menthol flavored.
Sales of pre-filled cartridges with tobacco and mint flavors, however, decreased following the announcement. Disposable e-cigarettes with fruit, sweet, and mint flavors saw a sharp increase in sales, however. From 2020 to 2022, sales of "other-flavor" e-cigarettes, such as those with fruit, sweet, and chocolate flavors, rose by 29.2% to 41.3%.
Although overall e-cigarette sales climbed during the research period, they actually fell from May to December 2022. The report states that a number of factors, including local and state limits on the sale of flavored tobacco products, FDA regulations, and supply chain disruptions due to Covid-19, may have contributed to the decline.