- Chevrolet continues its impressive sales streak.
- After the first five months, Chevy surpassed Ford in EV sales to become the #2 EV brand in the U.S.
- Now, GM has its sights set on Tesla.
Chevrolet is now the second-best-selling electric car maker in the United States, surpassing Ford and getting a little closer to the number one spot that has long been occupied by Tesla.
In the first five months of this year, Chevrolet sold over 37,000 EVs in the U.S., leaving Ford, with its estimated 34,000 EVs, in the dust. Meanwhile, General Motors, Chevy’s parent company, sold a combined 62,000 EVs thanks to its strong portfolio of battery-powered cars that includes no fewer than 13 models.
The American automaker’s EV bets seem to be paying off during a time of immense uncertainty in the industry due to tariffs and the increasing difficulty of sourcing affordable raw materials. In the first quarter, Chevrolet was the fastest-growing domestic EV brand, with sales up 14% thanks mostly to the Equinox EV and Blazer EV.
Meanwhile, GM had its second-best month in history for EV sales in May, which comes hot on the heels of an impressive 94% year-over-year growth in the first quarter. But that’s not all, with GM saying that its EV market share more than doubled year-over-year in April and May, reaching 15.5%, which is just a smidge away from GM’s overall market share of 17%.
“Customers are responding in record numbers to our world-class portfolio of electric and gas-powered vehicles,” said Rory Harvey, executive VP and president of global markets. “In the first two months of the second quarter, we more than doubled our EV sales compared to the same period last year.”
All this being said, however, it’s still very much an uphill battle for GM if it wants to dethrone Tesla as the number one EV company in America. In the first quarter alone, Tesla sold an estimated 128,100 EVs in the U.S., according to Cox Automotive, which is double what GM sold in the first five months. That said, Tesla saw an 8.6% decrease in sales, while GM–and Chevrolet, for that matter–are putting in stronger numbers month after month.
It’s unlikely that GM will surpass Tesla as the year goes into its second half, and only time will tell what will happen by the end of December. Tesla has the refreshed Model Y at its stores, and with the recently introduced Long Range Rear-Wheel Drive version, it could regain some of the ground it lost recently.
We’ll have to wait and see what happens in the battle for the best-selling EV companies in the U.S., but one thing is certain: the competition is breathing down Tesla’s neck harder than ever before.
