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Tesla Is Losing U.S. EV Sales—But Some Rivals Are Gaining

Tesla still leads U.S. EV sales by a wide margin despite declines. GM, Chevrolet, Toyota and Subaru are gaining, while the overall electric-car market has cooled from its 2025 peak.
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Yes, some non-Tesla electric vehicles are selling better than they did a year ago, but that does not mean the U.S. EV market is healthy across the board. Tesla remains the country’s largest EV seller by a wide margin even as its sales fall. General Motors, Chevrolet, Toyota and Subaru are among the brands posting notable gains, while total U.S. EV sales and market share have weakened from their 2025 peak.

The short answer: Tesla is down, rivals are mixed, and the market has cooled

Cox Automotive estimates Tesla sold 589,000 electric vehicles in the United States during 2025, a decline of 7%—about 44,000 vehicles—from 2024. The company was still the clear market leader. In the first half of 2026, Tesla’s EV sales were down more than 10%, yet it represented roughly half of U.S. EV sales, with Model Y and Model 3 doing most of the work.

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That creates two simultaneous realities: Tesla is under serious sales pressure, and no competitor is close to replacing it in overall volume. A few automakers are growing quickly from smaller bases, but their gains have not offset the category’s broader slowdown.

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Which EV brands are gaining sales?

General Motors is the clearest full-year standout

GM sold more than 150,000 EVs in the U.S. in 2025, according to Cox Automotive estimates. That was 48% higher than in 2024 and represented 13% of all U.S. EV sales. Chevrolet was the second-largest EV brand in the second quarter of 2026, although it remained far behind Tesla.

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Toyota and Subaru doubled EV volume year over year

Cox’s Q2 2026 analysis specifically identified Toyota and Subaru as brands that doubled EV volume compared with the same period a year earlier. “Doubled” describes growth rate, not leadership in total units: both started from much smaller EV bases than Tesla or GM.

Growth is not uniform across non-Tesla brands

Brand results vary with model availability, pricing, inventory and the timing of new launches. A manufacturer can post a large percentage increase while still selling fewer vehicles than a market leader, and another can lose volume while retaining a substantial share. The available estimates do not support saying that all non-Tesla EVs are thriving.

What happened to overall U.S. EV sales?

The wider market has contracted from its late-2025 high. EVs accounted for 7.8% of U.S. new-vehicle sales in calendar 2025, down from 8.1% in 2024. Quarterly results were especially uneven:

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Period U.S. EV result What it shows
Q3 2025 10.5% of new-vehicle sales The recent high-water mark in the cited data
Q4 2025 5.8% share A sharp drop from the prior quarter
Q1 2026 216,399 EVs, down 27% year over year Sales declined substantially versus Q1 2025
Q2 2026 Approximately 5.8% share Share stabilized near 6%, but below Q3 2025

These are Cox Automotive and Kelley Blue Book U.S. market estimates, not consumer-attitude polling or audited delivery figures from every automaker. They also refer to battery-electric vehicles; broader “electrified” totals that include hybrids or plug-in hybrids are not interchangeable with these numbers.

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Are electric car sales still falling?

In the latest actual quarterly data cited here, yes: Q1 2026 EV sales were down 27% year over year. By Q2, Cox described the market as stabilizing near a 5.8% share of new-vehicle sales, helped by new entries and stronger performances from several brands. Stabilization is not the same as a return to the 10.5% share recorded in Q3 2025.

Cox’s Stephanie Valdez Streaty said the U.S. EV market had “clearly entered a new phase.” She attributed the first-quarter reset in part to the end of federal incentives and said future growth would depend more on affordable products, pricing strategies and infrastructure. Her statement is an industry research assessment, not a regulatory finding, and it does not establish that incentives alone caused each automaker’s result.

Why Tesla can be losing sales while remaining dominant

Tesla’s position illustrates the difference between absolute volume and market share. A 7% annual decline still leaves a company selling hundreds of thousands of vehicles. Rivals can grow rapidly from smaller bases without approaching Tesla’s total. In Q2 2026, Tesla’s roughly half-share of U.S. EV sales showed that its lead remained very large even as its own sales weakened.

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Model concentration also matters. Cox says Model Y and Model 3 were the main drivers of Tesla’s first-half 2026 sales. Changes in those models’ pricing, inventory, refresh timing or consumer appeal can therefore have an outsized effect on the company’s results.

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What policy and products may change next?

Cox links the market’s slowdown to a demand adjustment after federal purchase incentives ended, while also pointing to state incentives, consumer interest and new products as possible supports. Those factors interact with interest rates, lease pricing, dealer inventory, charging access and each brand’s model mix.

Cox has cited products such as the 2026 Chevrolet Bolt, Rivian R2 and BMW iX3 as examples of upcoming entries. Their eventual contribution to U.S. sales was not established in the data available here, so they should be treated as potential supply—not proven results.

What the September 2026 Tesla forecast does—and does not—tell us

On September 24, 2026, Cox forecast Tesla’s total U.S. vehicle sales at 123,880 for Q3 2026, down 31% from Q3 2025. It forecast 365,980 total Tesla vehicles year to date, down 18.9% from the comparable 2025 period.

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Those figures cover Tesla’s entire vehicle lineup, not just battery-electric models, and they are forecasts rather than finalized Q3 results. They therefore cannot be used as the final Q3 EV sales tally or as a direct apples-to-apples comparison with the quarterly EV counts above. At the September 27, 2026 reporting date, finalized Q3 2026 EV brand results were not yet available in the cited material.

What to watch in the next confirmed data

  • Final Q3 2026 EV sales by brand, reported on the same U.S. and battery-electric basis.
  • Whether Tesla’s share falls materially below its first-half level or remains near half of the market.
  • Whether GM, Chevrolet, Toyota and Subaru sustain their gains beyond favorable comparison periods.
  • Pricing, inventory and deliveries for newly introduced lower-cost or higher-volume models.
  • How state incentives and charging availability affect demand after the federal incentive change.

The Bottom Line

Tesla is in trouble relative to its own previous sales, not in danger of losing the U.S. EV market immediately. Several rivals are gaining—most notably GM, with Toyota and Subaru also showing sharp percentage growth—but the overall market is smaller than its 2025 peak. The fairest description is a reshuffling inside a cooling category, not a broad non-Tesla boom.

Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.

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