- General Motors posted strong electric vehicle sales on Tuesday for the second quarter of 2025.
- GM says it sold 46,280 EVs in the U.S. across its Chevrolet, Cadillac and GMC brands.
- Its EV sales shot up over 100% year-on-year, while both Tesla and the U.S. EV market as a whole shrank.
General Motors is on a tear. Its electric vehicle sales more than doubled in the second quarter, hitting 46,280 units.
The carmaker sold some 114,000 EVs in the U.S. last year, crossing the 100,000-unit mark for the first time. That momentum carried on in the first several months of 2025, on the back of new models like the Cadillac Escalade IQ and Optiq. In the first half of 2025, GM says it sold some 78,000 EVs, amounting to a 13% share of the electric market.
The Chevrolet Equinox EV, launched last year with a $34,995 starting price and over 300 miles of range, is the real hero of GM's lineup. In the first half of 2025, GM says it sold more than 27,000 of them. The company says it's on track to become one of the top three most popular electric cars in the U.S. so far this year. Indeed, it passed the Ford Mustang Mach-E in the first half to become the best-selling non-Tesla EV in America.
Meanwhile Tesla, by far the U.S. EV sales leader, is struggling. Cox Automotive estimates that its U.S. sales dropped by 20% in Q2 as it grapples with an aging lineup, no truly affordable model and the controversial politics of its CEO, Elon Musk. Tesla's slump is the primary driver of a 6% drop in sales across America's EV market in Q2, Cox says.
"But while Tesla pulls back, GM is stepping up," Stephanie Valdez Streaty, Cox's director of industry insights, said last week. "So while the overall market is softening, the story beneath the surface is one of redistribution."
Of course, keep in mind that GM's EV sales are growing off of a much smaller base. Even in a down year, Tesla sold some 1.8 million electric cars globally in 2024.
Plus, GM has launched several new EVs in the last year. If sales weren't shooting up like they are now, that would be a problem. The company now has a lineup of 11 electric models, and several of them don't contribute significantly to its sales on their own. Some, like the Escalade IQ and Vistiq are still ramping up; GM sold 1,810 and 1,744 of them in Q2, respectively.
Others, namely big and expensive electric pickup trucks, just aren't taking off. The Chevrolet Silverado EV, the electric version of GM's high-volume truck, racked up just 3,056 sales in Q2 and around 5,500 this year so far. The higher-end GMC Sierra EV pickup managed about half that.
GM had planned start building electric pickups at its Orion assembly plant next year. It recently announced that that plant will make gas pickups and SUVs instead. And, with EV tax credits and battery incentives on the chopping block in Republicans' domestic policy bill, GM and others will face a tougher year for EV sales ahead.
Got a tip about the EV world? Contact the author: Tim.Levin@InsideEVs.com
