Newly released sales data from General Motors shows demand for its EVs has fallen off a cliff in the United States, contributing to a company-wide sales decline across the third quarter and through the first nine months of this year.

It’s no secret that EV sales in the US have dropped since the Trump administration axed the $7,500 federal tax credit last September. However, we suspect even GM couldn’t have anticipated just how far sales would decline.

Read: GM Keeps 70 Cents Of Every Subscription Dollar And Just 4 Cents On A Car Sale

The bad news starts at Cadillac. In Q3, sales of the Escalade IQ and IQL dropped 29.2% to 1,604 units. In addition, Cadillac Lyriq sales are down 50.2% to 3,617 units, Optiq sales have declined 6.9% to 4,550, and sales of the Vistiq fell 34.1% to 2,587 units. Total sales at the Cadillac brand were down 30% to 32,650.

Chevrolet Suffers

Then there’s Chevrolet, which saw its sales decline 4.6% to 437,321 vehicles. The Blazer EV suffered an 84.4% fall in sales to just 1,261 units. In addition, sales of the axed BrightDrop 400 and 600 vans were down 43.6% to 1,344. The biggest loser was the Equinox EV, with sales declining 92.4% from 25,085 in Q3 2025 to just 1,905 last quarter. Year-to-date sales are down 65.6% to 18,154.

Demand for the Silverado EV has also dried up. Across July, August, and September, just 1,655 were sold, down 58% from 3,940. Year-to-date, just 5,327 have been sold, a 43.2% reduction from the previous year.

Things aren’t any better at GMC. Sales of the Hummer EV SUV and Pickup declined 72.9% in Q3 to just 1,423 units. In addition, Sierra EV sales declined 50.8% from 3,374 to just 1,661 units. Total sales across the GMC brand dropped 4.7% to 157,103.

In total, GM ended the third quarter having sold 670,974 vehicles, 5.5% fewer than the 710,347 it sold in Q3 2025. Through the first nine months of the year, total sales have fallen 6.4% to 2,012,299.

A handful of models did enjoy a jump in sales in the third quarter. For example, sales of the Buick Enclave, Encore GX, and Envista rose 3.4%, 5.4%, and 18.4%, respectively. In addition, Cadillac CT5 sales were up 4.1%, Chevrolet Colorado sales rose 2.4%, and Corvette sales were up 28.5%. Chevrolet also reported a 51.1% jump in Trailblazer sales. At GMC, Acadia sales rose 7.7%, Canyon sales were up 17.9%, Sierra LD sales climbed 2.9%, and Yukon sales jumped 8%.

If you follow the stock market at all, you’re probably still kicking yourself for not dropping $10k into Sandisk last year. If you’d done that in April 2025 and cashed out 14 months later you’d have made almost $800k. It could be worse though: You could be GM and have invested billions in EVs only to discover everyone wants hybrids.

Rewind to the late 2010s and the whole car industry was going gaga for EVs, with multiple brands pledging to go electric-only by 2030 and most putting huge resources into battery-powered cars. Growing EV sales figures and tightening regulations really did make electric vehicles look like they would take over the world.

Related: Kia Sets All-Time August Sales Record As Hybrids Soar

Hybrids, meanwhile, which had kick-started the modern electric revolution in the late 1990s, were dismissed as an “interim solution” by GM boss Mary Barra in 2019, Reuters reminds us. But seven years later, American car sales say hybrids are the complete solution, not an interim one. And automakers who bet on gasoline-electric rather than electric power alone are winning big.

The biggest winner is Toyota. It’s crushing the competition, securing a 49.2 percent share in Q1 of the hybrid market, Cox Automotive says, per Reuters. That market has grown, too. Hybrids’ share of the total car market swelled from 16 percent in February to 19 percent in August on account of gas prices exploding following the start of war in Iran. And one analyst told Reuters he expects hybrids to hit a 34 percent share by 2031.

Stuck To Its Hybrid Guns

Toyota, you’ll remember, popularized the hybrid with the original Prius, and endured years of criticism for being slow to launch EVs. But it never wavered from its commitment to hybrids, and that determination is paying off in the US in 2026. While GM’s share of the US car market fell from 17.6 percent in the first half of 2025 to 16.8 percent in the same period this year, Toyota’s grew from 15.5 to 15.8 percent, according to Cox Automotive.

EVs also cut fuel costs, of course. And in Europe, which is suffering the same kind of gas pain American drivers are battling, EV sales are on fire. One in every four new cars sold there is an EV. But in the US, sales are heading in the opposite direction, partly as a result of the Trump administration killing federal EV tax credits. Their share of the US market fell from 14.4 percent in September 2025 to 7.1 percent this May.

The 19 MPG Hybrid

So if GM wants to get back in the game, it’s got no option but to deliver multiple new hybrid choices to support the straight gas vehicles it fortunately kept building. Incredibly, the General’s sole hybrids in the US today are three Corvettes, the $111k E-Ray, $119k Grand Sport X and $227k ZR1X, though in previous years it also sold hybrid sedans and SUVs. It also sells hybrids in China.

When will we see new GM hybrids with more than two seats in North America? Dealers won’t like the answer, because while the automaker won’t confirm dates or comment on speculation, Reuters industry sources say American showrooms could be hybrid-free zones until near the end of the decade.

GM, Toyota