General Motors sold 25,473 electric vehicles in the United States in the third quarter, down 61.7% from a record 66,501 a year earlier, as sales of its once best-selling Chevrolet Equinox EV collapsed.
EVs accounted for 3.8% of GM’s 670,974 US deliveries in the quarter, down from 9.4% a year earlier, according to model figures in the company’s quarterly sales release published on Thursday.
The comparison is with a quarter in which US buyers rushed to claim the $7,500 federal EV tax credit before it expired on September 30, 2025.
GM’s total US sales fell 5.5%, which the company attributed to “the much smaller EV market and discontinued vehicles.”
GM’s EV deliveries fell by 41,028 units, more than its total deliveries, which fell by 39,373, meaning its non-EV sales rose by 1,655, or 0.3%.
GM’s EV decline was steeper than the roughly 45% drop Cox Automotive forecast last week for the overall US EV market in the third quarter, when it projected about 239,000 sales.
On that forecast, GM’s 25,473 EVs would be about 10.7% of the US market, against 15.2% of the 437,487 EVs Cox reported a year earlier, though Cox’s actual third-quarter figures are not due until later in October.
The Equinox EV Collapse
Chevrolet‘s Equinox EV sold 1,905 units in the quarter, down 92.4% from 25,085 a year earlier.
That compares with 9,589 in the first quarter and 6,660 in the second, a 71.4% drop in three months.
The Equinox EV had been GM’s top-selling EV, and in the first nine months it sold 18,154 units, down 65.6%.
GM cut about 1,900 jobs at its Ramos Arizpe plant in Mexico in January and moved it to a single shift building the Equinox EV and Blazer EV, citing weaker US EV demand, Mexico Business News reported at the time.
The Blazer EV fell 84.4% to 1,261, and the Silverado EV pickup 58.0% to 1,655.
Chevrolet’s EV sales fell 74.6% to 10,031 across its five electric models.
Bolt Sales Rise
The new Chevrolet Bolt sold 3,866 units, up from 3,433 in the second quarter, making it GM’s second-best-selling EV in the quarter.
GM’s release said the Bolt was named Car and Driver‘s 2026 EV of the Year.
The Bolt starts at $28,995 including destination, with an EPA-estimated range of 262 miles.
The Bolt’s production run at GM’s Fairfax plant in Kansas is on pace for about 35,000 vehicles, down from around 150,000 originally planned, and will end in the first quarter of next year, the plant’s local United Auto Workers president told Reuters this week.
GM declined to give a figure, telling Reuters that it continuously evaluates “market dynamics and customer demand.”
GM told TechCrunch in January that the Bolt was a limited-run model and that its production was expected to end in about a year and a half.
Cadillac
The Cadillac Optiq was GM’s best-selling EV, with 4,550 units, down 6.9% from a year earlier but up 7.4% from the second quarter.
The three-row Vistiq rose 29.3% from the second quarter to 2,587, although it was down 34.1% year on year.
The Lyriq fell 50.5% to 3,617, and the Escalade IQ and IQL 29.2% to 1,604.
Cadillac’s four EVs sold 12,358 units, nearly half of GM’s US EV sales and 38.0% of Cadillac’s 32,560 US deliveries in the quarter.
“Cadillac share of the EV industry grew 1.3 ppt CYTD through August,” GM said in its presentation, without giving the share itself.
GMC and BrightDrop
GMC‘s Hummer EV fell 72.9% to 1,423, and the Sierra EV pickup 50.8% to 1,661.
The BrightDrop electric van fell 43.6% to 1,344, though it nearly tripled from 460 in the second quarter.
GM confirmed in October 2025 that it had ended BrightDrop production at its CAMI plant in Ontario, where output had been paused since May 2025, so third-quarter sales came from vehicles built before then.
Nine-Month Picture
GM sold 82,152 EVs in the US in the first nine months, down 43.2% from 144,668 a year earlier.
EVs made up 4.1% of its year-to-date US deliveries, against 6.7% in the same period of 2025.
Quarterly EV sales have run at 25,851 in the first quarter, 30,828 in the second and 25,473 in the third, making the third quarter GM’s weakest of the year.
EVs made up 4.3% of GM’s 714,896 US deliveries in the second quarter, meaning the electric share fell half a percentage point in three months.
Only the Optiq, the Vistiq and the newly launched Bolt have higher year-to-date sales than in 2025.
Strategy Behind the Numbers
GM took a $1.6 billion charge in the third quarter of 2025 to realign EV production with lower demand after the tax credit ended.
GM’s third-quarter release focused on trucks, SUVs and fleet sales, highlighting its lead in full-size pickups, record sales of small SUVs such as the Trax and Buick Envista, and the next-generation Silverado and Sierra due in showrooms by year-end.
“Our business is performing very well, the launch of our next-generation full-size pickup trucks is on track, and we are making investments in new vehicles, innovative technologies, and our U.S. manufacturing footprint to drive our next phase of growth,” said Duncan Aldred, President of GM North America.
Internal-combustion sales were in line with the third quarter of 2025, GM said.
GM ended the quarter with about 568,000 vehicles in dealer inventory and said it was on track to end the year with 50 to 60 days of supply.
In the second quarter, GM said it held 13.5% to 14% of the US EV market, but it did not update that estimate on Thursday.
“We still think EVs are the end game,” CEO Mary Barra said on Fortune‘s Titans podcast in September.
GM will report third-quarter results on October 20.
