A few years ago, automakers faced a tough choice. They could eschew hybrids and plug-in hybrids to go all-in on EVs, or adopt a more balanced, but expensive approach that saw them invest in multiple technologies.

A number of companies went the electric route and that ended up costing them greatly as adoption was slower than they anticipated. If that wasn’t bad enough, the United States eliminated the federal tax credit and governments rolled back overly ambitious green agendas.

More: Gas Was $2.98 A Month Ago. It Just Crossed $4 For The First Time Since 2022

This has pushed automakers to cancel EVs and abandon plans to go electric-only. Companies have posted huge losses and now they’re suddenly playing catch-up with rivals that took a more nuanced approach.

Expensive Gas Is Going To Make Things Even Worse

Since some companies were betting on a quick transition to EVs, a number of them don’t have many hybrids or plug-in hybrids to offer customers. That’s bad news in an era where the national average price of a gallon of gasoline is above $4 and climbs to nearly $6 in some states.

The only hybrid GM has in America is the $108,600 Corvette E-Ray and that’s a huge problem. Consumers in the market for a compact crossover might look at an Equinox, which returns up to 26 mpg city, 29 mpg highway, and 27 mpg combined. That’s not terrible, but the Toyota RAV4 gets 47 mpg city, 40 mpg highway, and 43 mpg combined. This is a huge difference, especially in an era of sky high gas prices.

Hyundai and Kia also offer hybrid competitors in the form of the Tucson and Sportage. The former offers up to 38 mpg across the board, while the latter returns up to 41 mpg city, 44 mpg highway, and 42 mpg combined. It’s also worth noting all three competitors offer plug-in hybrid variants, while GM doesn’t offer a single one in the United States.

General Motors isn’t the only automaker that bet big on EVs and lived to regret it. Ford has a limited hybrid lineup that consists of the Maverick and F-150. The Escape, which offered hybrid and plug-in hybrid options, was recently killed off, while the Explorer Hybrid is limited to police and the Pope.

Hybrid Sales Are Skyrocketing

While the war in Iran is barely more than a month old, hybrid sales are booming. Kia recently revealed sales of hybrids soared 73% to set a new quarterly record.

Last month was also Hyundai’s best ever March for hybrid sales. The company noted hybrids saw a huge jump in the first quarter as the Elantra Hybrid was up 141%, while the Sonata Hybrid soared 107%. The Santa Fe Hybrid also got a 47% boost as consumers embraced efficiency.

While Toyota sales fell 6.9% in the first quarter, high gas prices could help to reverse that trend as the company offers a dizzying array of hybrids. Seventeen, to be exact, according to our last count. This includes the Camry, Corolla, Crown, Corolla Cross, and Prius, as well as the Crown Signia, Highlander, Grand Highlander, Land Cruiser, RAV4, 4Runner, Tacoma, Tundra, Sequoia, and Sienna. Two of those, the Prius and RAV4, are also offered as plug-in hybrids.

That’s a huge lineup, especially compared to Ford, GM, and Stellantis. The latter recently killed off plug-in hybrids and only offers the new Cherokee Hybrid in America. However, range-extended variants of the Ram 1500 and Grand Wagoneer are coming.

While EVs do offer some cover to these companies during periods of high gas prices, consumers have been clear: most want hybrids, not fully electric vehicles.

Buick was on a roll as the affordable Envista was bringing new customers into showrooms, while the redesigned Enclave proved popular. Then, seemingly overnight, the brand decided to roll over and play dead.

The automaker hasn’t issued a proper press release in nearly two years and many people associated with their marketing efforts fled for greener pastures at Stellantis. If that wasn’t bad enough, GM basically abandoned Buick’s electrification plans in the United States.

More: Buick Delays Plan To Launch First EV In America

Thanks to these and other issues, sales are tanking – hard. In the first quarter, deliveries plunged 32.6% to a mere 41,654 units. The big loser was the Chinese-built Envision, which received a $3,000 price hike for 2026 as the model is getting hammered by tariffs.

The decline doesn’t appear to be an availability issue as dealers have more than 9,000 Envisions in stock. That’s roughly six months of supply, suggesting demand is lacking.

If losers love company, Buick had a lot to celebrate as the Encore GX was off by 36%, while the Envista was down 9.7%. Even the Enclave struggled as sales dropped 3.3%.

Cadillac’s Big Bet On EVs Is Having Mixed Results

When the electric vehicle tax credit was eliminated last year, sales plummeted. That continues and has put Cadillac in a tough spot as they have an EV-laden lineup.

Lyriq sales fell 21.6%, while the Escalade IQ dropped 26.8%. However, the Optiq soared 65.9% thanks to significant powertrain updates as well as the addition of the Optiq-V. The three-row Vistiq also seems to be doing okay as the company moved 1,902 units in the first quarter.

On the gas side of the equation, the outgoing CT4 saw sales surge 27.4%, but that only equates to an additional 333 vehicles. Elsewhere in the lineup, the CT5 was down 13.3% while the Escalade was off 28.5%. The XT4, XT5, and XT6 are all dead or almost dead, so we’ll skip them like buyers did.

Given all of this, it’s hardly surprising that overall Cadillac sales dropped 25.5%.

Chevrolet Had A Rough Quarter

Over in bowtie land, it’s an EV bloodbath. The Blazer EV plummeted 82.6% to a mere 1,077 units. The Equinox EV was off 7.2%, while the Silverado EV fell 41%.

Even the resurrected Bolt seems like a failure as the company only moved 791 units. That’s less than 270 per month and it seems like the model’s death and rebirth was a giant waste of time, effort, and resources.

The only bright spot was the deceased Brightdrop vans, which saw sales soar 81%. However, this was likely driven by a fire sale with six figure discounts.

Putting EVs aside, overall sales fell 8.1% as numerous models struggled including the Blazer (-26.3%), Colorado (-16.5%), Corvette (-8.2%), Equinox (-13.5%), Trailblazer (-6.3%), Tahoe (-10.0%), and Suburban (-14.0%). Traverse sales climbed 33.6% and the Silverado 1500 was up 7.9%, but they couldn’t offset the overall decline.

GMC Did Okay

GMC had the best performance as sales were only down 0.2%. The Acadia tied last year’s result as the company once again sold 13,257 crossovers. The Colorado was up 21.2%, while the Terrain soared 35.2%. Even the Sierra EV saw a slight 3.1% improvement, but that only equates to an additional 39 pickups as sales were terrible to begin with.

Speaking of EVs, the Hummer lineup plunged 52.5% despite a handful of updates for the 2026 model year. Sierra 1500, 2500, and 3500 sales also fell as did those for the Yukon.

A Bad Quarter Overall

Zooming out even further, GM’s total sales fell 9.7% to 626,429 units. The automaker tried to put a positive spin on things as they said “momentum in March helped results partially recover from a slower January and February, when winter storms impacted the market.” GM added they’re leading in U.S. sales and gained an additional 50,000 Super Cruise subscribers.

2026 GM Q1 Sales

Demand for GM’s electric vehicles in the US is so poor that the carmaker has revealed Factory Zero in Detroit, its all-electric vehicle hub, will be idled until April 13. Production at the site has already been paused since March 16, so it’ll be offline for almost an entire month.

Due to the production pause, roughly 1,300 workers will be temporarily laid off by the car manufacturer. This news is just the latest blow for those who work at the site, as output at Factory Zero was already cut by almost 50 percent in January when it moved to a single-shift operation. This prompted GM to put 1,200 workers on indefinite layoff.

Read: GM Is Boosting Production Of Its Biggest Gas Guzzlers, Fuel Prices Be Damned

The plant handles production of models including the Chevrolet Silverado EV and Hummer EV, but sales have slowed since the US government axed the $7,500 federal EV tax credit.

In the last quarter of 2025, Chevy sold 1,896 Silverado EVs, down 12.9 percent from the 2,176 in 2024. Interestingly, total 2025 sales reached 11,275, which was 51.8 percent higher than 2024.

GMC Hummer EV Collapse

The GMC Hummer EV is starting to feel the effects of shifting government policy. Sales dropped 49.8 percent in the final quarter of 2025, falling from 5,091 units to 2,555. That slide carried straight into 2026, with just 1,653 units moved in Q1, down 52.5 percent from the 3,479 sold a year earlier.

The GMC Sierra EV, meanwhile, managed to buck the trend. It posted 1,288 deliveries in Q1 2026, narrowly beating the 1,249 units from the same period in 2025. In a tough stretch for Factory Zero, that modest gain stands out as one of the few positives.

Like some of the competition, GM is pulling back from its EV commitments, confirming it will take $7.6 billion in charges for scaling back its EV spending. While GM boss Mary Barra still refers to EVs as the company’s “end game,” The General is making changes in the meantime. This includes working on several plug-in hybrid models, details of which still remain thin on the ground.

GM also recently announced it’s boosting production of some of its biggest gas guzzlers, namely the Chevrolet Silverado 2500 and 3500, in addition to the GMC Sierra 2500 and 3500.

The Wuling Hongguang Mini EV has been around since 2020, yet it has already cycled into what’s being called its fifth generation. If that feels excessive, you’re not alone. In reality, these aren’t clean-sheet overhauls so much as heavy facelifts, which says plenty about the pace at which China’s car industry moves. Even so, racking up so many redesigns in just six years is an impressive feat.

This latest iteration leans into a redesigned exterior with a soft, almost sugar-cube look, while also stepping up inside with improved tech and a more polished cabin. Range has increased too.

Built by the SAIC-GM-Wuling partnership, the micro EV has quietly become a runaway success in China, with cumulative sales surpassing 1.9 million units by the end of 2025. This version continues to widen its appeal with a more practical five-door layout, a bodystyle first introduced late in 2024 on the outgoing model.

More: A $9,500 Hatch Stole Tesla’s Best-Seller Crown In China

Visually, the highlight is the new face with a more upright nose giving the car a friendlier, almost toy-like expression. Round LED headlights and taillights are linked by a chrome strip. The overall silhouette remains familiar, but every panel has been reworked and paired with a brighter, more playful color palette.

It’s Small, Really Small

The five-door Hongguang Mini measures 3,268 mm (128.7 inches) in length, just 12 mm (0.5 inch) longer than before, while keeping the same 2,190 mm (86.2 inches) wheelbase. The two-door version remains the more compact option, coming in at 3,064 mm (120.6 inches) long with a 2,010 mm (79.1 inches) wheelbase.

More: GM’s New SUV Is Bigger Than An Equinox And Starts Under $8,600

The interior looks familiar, but the dashboard has been redesigned with a larger 10.1-inch infotainment touchscreen and slimmer climate vents. Furthermore, the physical climate controls have been removed entirely, and a column-mounted gear selector opens up extra space between the front seats.

Cargo space stands at 170 liters (6 cu ft) with the seats up, expanding to 838 liters (29.6 cu ft) when the rear bench is folded. The company also claims 20 separate storage compartments throughout the cabin, which should help offset the Mini’s modest footprint in everyday use.

40 HP, But Range Does The Talking

Every version sticks with a rear-mounted electric motor, delivering just 40 hp (30 kW / 41 PS) and 85 Nm (63 lb-ft) of torque, identical to the outgoing model. Performance remains modest, as expected, with top speed capped at 101 km/h (62 mph).

More: GM’s China Sales Are Down 75%, And The Clock Running Out Isn’t One It Controls

Buyers get a choice of two battery packs. The entry-level model runs a 16.2 kWh unit, good for 205 km (127 miles) of CLTC range. Step up to the 25.1 kWh battery, and that figure climbs to 301 km (187 miles). In both cases, charging from 30% to 80% takes around 35 minutes, which keeps downtime relatively short for a city-focused EV.

How Much Does It Cost?

The five-door 2026 Wuling Hongguang Mini EV is already on sale in China, with pricing starting at ¥44,800 ($6,500) and rising to ¥55,800 ($8,100) for the range-topping version with the larger battery. Factor in current trade-in subsidies, and the entry point drops slightly further to ¥42,800 ($6,200), reinforcing its position as one of the most accessible EVs on the market.

General Motors’ joint venture in China is attempting to turn things around before the partnership with China’s SAIC expires. The aim of the game is electrification. Go green, be quick, and build trust again before it is too late.

At a dealer meeting in early March, SAIC-GM President Lu Xiao announced a three-year plan, which is based around new Buick and Cadillac EVs, improved in-car technology, and increased exports.

But the plans are still leaving some in the industry skeptical. Despite Xiao’s assurances that the joint venture is focused on the future, there’s no clear sign yet that a renewal is actually in motion, even with the agreement set to expire in June 2027.

Contrast that with the venture between Volkswagen and SAIC, which was extended six years early, and you can see why some GM-SAIC dealers may be concerned, reports AutoNews.

Buick And Cadillac Spearhead The Plan

The backdrop is tough. While sales last year were promising, they’re still down since a high of 2 million cars in 2017 to only 562,000 in 2025, a 75 percent decrease. The joint venture has just come back to the black, as GM recorded restructuring costs amounting to $2.7 billion in order to reduce capacity and rebrand operations.

Read: GM’s Comeback Story Isn’t Happening In America

SAIC-GM will use over 10 billion yuan (about $1.4 billion at current rates) to revise existing Buick models and come up with the new generation of its products. The strength that Buick has in the multipurpose vehicle market is a home run, and the company desires to maintain what it has and advance further in the direction of electrification.

Momentum is already gaining speed. The Buick Electra L7, an all-electric and range-extender crossover, is arriving in the next few months. An all-electric version of the Encasa MPV was recently introduced and a plug-in hybrid version will be introduced later this year with a quicker charger and an increased engine size.

Cadillac is trending along at the same speed. The completely electric Cadillac Vistiq SUV, which will feature lidar and an advanced driver-assistance system co-developed with Momenta, will debut in late April. At the same time, models such as the Buick LaCrosse, the Envision, and the Cadillac XT5, which were traditionally ICE nameplates, will be getting electrification.

Cars That Charge Faster, Smarter Software, Sharper Focus

One of the reasons why GM’s, and other foreign carmakers’, products have been falling out of favor with Chinese consumers is the lack of up-to date tech that is often commonplace in domestic offerings. GM and SAIC’s action plan hopes to address that on a number of fronts.

The Xiaoyao platform will be able to support next-generation battery systems with 1,000V fast charging, driving ranges of up to 1,000 kilometers, and power outputs up to 850 kilowatts. The future holds advances in active suspension, steer-by-wire, and rear-wheel steering, all controlled under GM-SAIC’s proprietary software.

Inside the cabin, change is just as important. All Buick Electra models and the Cadillac XT5 will adopt new smart cockpit systems this year, boosting smartphone connectivity as well as improving digital interfaces.

A further upgrade in the future will take technology from ByteDance (the name behind TikTok) and refine the user experience. On the driver’s assistance front, such Level 2 systems hit the road this year, with Level 3 slated for 2027.

Exports are another lever, albeit a complicated one. SAIC-GM has exported vehicles overseas since 2001 as well as to the US and Mexico. But new tariffs have wreaked havoc on that business. Exports plunged 40 percent in 2025 to about 50,500 vehicles, most of them because of higher U.S. duties, and Mexico has also increased its tariffs on China-built light vehicles.

Just a few months after Ford announced that one of its battery plants, originally destined for EV batteries, would instead start making batteries for energy storage systems, General Motors has done the same.

The car manufacturer, in partnership with LG Energy Solution, operates the Ultium Cells LLC joint venture and runs a large factory in Tennessee. This site opened in 2024, making cells for the Cadillac Lyriq and Vistiq, and the Acura ZDX. Late last year, more than 700 employees were laid off from the plant as GM, like its competitors, pulled back its EV investments.

Read: GM’s EV Plant Will Now Build The Gas Models People Actually Want

Now, Ultium’s vice president of operations, Tom Gallagher, said that these workers will be rehired and return to work by the end of April, as the site is switching to lithium-iron phosphate cells for grid and data center customers.

An Expensive Pivot

Bloomberg reports that retooling the plant has cost the joint venture tens of millions of dollars, but will help prevent hemorrhaging even more money from its EV pivot. It will also help LG, which is also retooling four other EV battery plants in North America, including two in Michigan, one in Canada formed through a joint venture with Stellantis, and an Ohio plant established with Honda. All of these sites will now begin manufacturing LFP cells for storage systems.

“Having these facilities that are able to be converted in less than a year means that we can react and we can actually get up to capacity,” chief product officer from LG’s systems integration unit, Vertech, Tristan Doherty said. “We’re going to be supplying the majority of the US market with domestic cells.”

GM says staff at the joint venture battery plant will be retrained as part of the shift. But the car manufacturer is remaining silent about its longer-term plans for the site, having previously stated that it’d start producing lithium manganese-rich batteries in Tennessee by 2028.

Just a few months after Ford announced that one of its battery plants, originally destined for EV batteries, would instead start making batteries for energy storage systems, General Motors has done the same.

The car manufacturer, in partnership with LG Energy Solution, operates the Ultium Cells LLC joint venture and runs a large factory in Tennessee. This site opened in 2024, making cells for the Cadillac Lyriq and Vistiq, and the Acura ZDX. Late last year, more than 700 employees were laid off from the plant as GM, like its competitors, pulled back its EV investments.

Read: GM’s EV Plant Will Now Build The Gas Models People Actually Want

Now, Ultium’s vice president of operations, Tom Gallagher, said that these workers will be rehired and return to work by the end of April, as the site is switching to lithium-iron phosphate cells for grid and data center customers.

An Expensive Pivot

Bloomberg reports that retooling the plant has cost the joint venture tens of millions of dollars, but will help prevent hemorrhaging even more money from its EV pivot. It will also help LG, which is also retooling four other EV battery plants in North America, including two in Michigan, one in Canada formed through a joint venture with Stellantis, and an Ohio plant established with Honda. All of these sites will now begin manufacturing LFP cells for storage systems.

“Having these facilities that are able to be converted in less than a year means that we can react and we can actually get up to capacity,” chief product officer from LG’s systems integration unit, Vertech, Tristan Doherty said. “We’re going to be supplying the majority of the US market with domestic cells.”

GM says staff at the joint venture battery plant will be retrained as part of the shift. But the car manufacturer is remaining silent about its longer-term plans for the site, having previously stated that it’d start producing lithium manganese-rich batteries in Tennessee by 2028.

The new year hasn’t been kind to traditional automakers, many of which now find themselves confronting an EV reality in the U.S. that looks very different from what they had been planning in boardrooms not long ago. A mix of policy changes and cooling demand is forcing several manufacturers to rethink electrification plans that, until recently, sat at the center of their long-term strategies.

Read: Honda Cancels 0 Sedan, 0 SUV, And Acura RSX EVs

Honda is the latest to change course. The company confirmed this week that it will scrap all three electric vehicles it had planned to build in America, citing weakening demand, especially in the US market. The move places it alongside Ford, GM, and Stellantis, all of which have recently scaled back their own EV programs.

Taken together, the retreat is proving expensive. Those four automakers alone have absorbed close to $70 billion in losses tied to their EV investments, reports Auto News. And that figure doesn’t even include other manufacturers, such as Porsche, which have also begun dialing back their electrification plans.

The drop in EV demand in the US can be largely traced to decisions made by the Trump administration. New government policies not only encourage manufacturers to prioritize combustion-powered models, but the removal of the $7,500 federal EV tax credit has also further weakened demand at a time when adoption was already slowing.

In fact, EV registrations fell 48 percent in December compared to last year, dropping to just 75,427 vehicles. As a result, EV market share slipped from 9.9 percent to 5.3 percent.

The EV Graveyard

Ford has already revealed that its retreat from EVs has cost roughly $21 billion. The company scrapped plans for a three-row electric SUV and ended production of the F-150 Lightning last year after it failed to meet sales expectations.

Stellantis recently said its EV pullback will cost about $26 billion, following the cancellation of several electric models. GM has also stepped back, halting production of the Chevrolet BrightDrop electric van in Canada and repurposing a Michigan plant for gas trucks after originally planning to build EVs there.

As noted by Auto News, Honda is booking 2.5 trillion yen or $15.7 billion in expenses and losses due to its EV U-turn. In addition to killing off the 0 Saloon and the 0 SUV, the car manufacturer has killed off the all-electric Acura RSX. That sleek coupe SUV was unveiled as a pre-production prototype last year and would have been the first to use Honda’s in-house global EV platform.

Honda is booking 2.5 trillion yen or $15.7 billion in expenses and losses tied to its EV U-turn. Alongside the cancellation of the 0 Saloon and the 0 SUV, the automaker has also killed the all-electric Acura RSX. The stylish coupe SUV debuted as a pre-production prototype last year and was set to become the first model built on Honda’s in-house global EV platform.