Long-Term Sales Trends from 7 Top Selling Electric Vehicles in USA — CHARTS – CleanTechnica

---

Support CleanTechnica’s work through a Substack subscription or on Stripe.

---

Working on 3rd quarter US electric vehicle sales reports this week (see here and here), I decided I wanted to have a closer look at the long-term ups and downs of the top selling electric vehicle models in the country. Despite covering these sales quarterly for years, I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect from the charts of most of these top models. Have a look below and see what jumps out to you. (Note: for each model, there’s a static version of the sales chart and then an interactive version.)

The Ford F-150 Lightning had the lowest sales volume of this group of 7 top selling EVs, but it surpassed the 10,000 unit mark in the 3rd quarter, so it just made the cut here. Interestingly, this was not a record quarter for the Lightning, which had higher sales in the 4th quarter of 2023 and the 4th quarter of 2024. The story of the past couple of years has clearly been one of ups and downs, but the overall sales trend of the last couple of years hasn’t been good. So, can it score 10,000+ sales a quarter again soon-ish? That’s probably not going to happen, unfortunately. Ford needs to change something in order to get this electric pickup truck’s sales booming at anywhere close to the level of its gas-powered siblings.

The Audi Q6 e-tron is fairly new to the market, but it has shot up quickly. In fact, its ramp-up period had just about perfect timing and the Q6 e-tron soared to a record output of 10,299 in the 3rd quarter. It will crash in the 4th quarter, but how much, and how well will it bounce back? We don’t have enough history to have a good guess of where this model will go, but it got off to a great start!

The Volkswagen ID.4 had a decent start but then really fell off the map in the US market. However, it had a giant 3rd quarter surge and certainly got its mojo back for the time being. The question is whether that was a blip among the larger trend or the ID.4 can build on that and see solid US sales again.

Hyundai clearly had an eye on the expiring tax credit, with ample supply of the IONIQ 5 provided in the country allowing it to take advantage of the surge in EV demand and jump upward quickly in the 3rd quarter. I think the model had one of the most surprisingly positive results on the market. But will it crash just as hard, and when can it get back up to that 3rd quarter level again?

The Honda Prologue had a similar up and down and up in the past few quarters. A long, sharp dive is probably next for the model, but what if Honda could keep the momentum going?… Are mass-market Honda buyers finally ready to go electric?

Getting back to Ford, in general there has been a good gradual rise in Mustang Mach-E sales. Kudos to Ford for building a solid midsize electric SUV that has held up well and just keeps getting better. But its biggest test yet is right on the horizon — can it maintain high sales, and even grow them, in the 4th quarter and onward?

Last but not least for this group is the Chevy Equinox EV, which had the most 3rd quarter sales of any non-Tesla electric model. It has been at decent volumes, but how will it handle the US EV tax credit expiring? The Equinox EV is a model that still offers high value for money, and I get the feeling GM could continue to push the model and find many buyers even in the more challenging market. But maybe it will see a significant sales crash for a while without the tax credit. We shall see.

No, I didn’t forget or neglect Tesla. Its model sales in the US will be discussed in a coming article, along with Rivian’s.

Want more discussion on some of these top brands, as well as Tesla? Join Steve Hanley, Paul Fosse, Larry Evans, and myself in a chat on US and European EV sales trends in the video below.