Around 300,000 electric cars were sold in the USA from January to March, which corresponds to an increase of about eleven percent compared to the previous year 2024. BMW and VW in particular can grow properly, while Tesla and Mercedes are among the losers. VW partner Rivian also has to cope with a setback. The latest Kelley Blue Book (KBB) particularly benefits manufacturers that launched new e-models last year. General Motors was able to almost double its e-car sales thanks to the Ultium model range. More than 30,000 Stromer from GM brands (especially Chevrolet and Cadillac) found a buyer in the first quarter of 2025, almost twice as many as a year earlier. GM thus passed Ford and the Hyundai/Kia Group and became the second largest e-car provider in the USA. Honda/Acura are new to the EV race: Together they contributed a good 14,000 electric SUVs (models Honda Prologue and ACURA ZDX) where there were no existing in the previous year. Stellantis has also finally entered the United States-with the first sales of the electric jeep and dodge models and the new Fiat 500E. These brands only came to a few thousand vehicles, but the offer is widely widened. Overall, the following applies: new models are driving market growth, while some established electric vehicles are declining. “Goodbye, Chevy Bolt – Hello, Chevy Equinox EV”, comments Cox Automotive dry at GM. The cheap Chevy Bolt was discontinued at the end of 2024, but its successor Equinox EV as well as the electric blazer and the Silverado pick-up fill the gap-with a noticeable success in the sales statistics.tesla under pressure: decline in sales despite the price refusal market leader Tesla recorded a clear drop in sales. According to KBB, Tesla delivered around 128,100 electric cars in the USA in the first quarter-a good 12,000 less than in the same period last year, a minus of 8.6 percent. This means that Tesla’s US market share of electric cars falls to 43.5 percent-after more than 50 percent in the previous year. Analysts attribute this back to several factors: On the one hand, Tesla has partly reduced its prices aggressively to boost demand, but this effect seems to be released. On the other hand, the demand in Tesla’s core segment is gradually saturated, while the competition offers more and more attractive alternatives. Another factor is waiting for model updates: Tesla customers recently held back, in anticipation of the model maintenance of the Model Y, which is currently being available. Reuters reports that Tesla’s sales dell also goes back to an image fighter for the brand – caused by negative headlines around Elon Musk’s political activities and delays in new models. This is how Tesla’s global sales sank by 13 percent in the first quarter of 2025 and reached the lowest level in almost three years. In the United States, Tesla is still considered a synonym for the electric car, but the “First Mover Advantage” disappears. Without a significant product offensive or strategy change, Tesla is expected to continue to shrink in his home market, the Cox Automotive industry service expects. In the first quarter, the futuristic cyberruck also only helped to be limited: Tesla delivered around 6,400 cybertrucks, significantly more than the 2800 in the previous year, but the volume models weakened. Especially the SUV Model Y – Teslas bestseller – collapsed by 34 percent. Model 3, on the other hand, made 70 percent to a good 52,500 sales, which is attributed to price cuts and the introduction of a refresher version. The expensive premium models Model S and X remained significantly below the previous year with less than 5200 units. Here, a declining demand in the luxury sector is noticeable. In total, Tesla is faced with the challenge of defending its dominance without new volume models and when the competition is growing. The CEO Elon Musk continued to promise growth for 2025 and promised a favorable entry model, but skepticism is appropriate: “I am rather skeptical about the demand for the new model Y … the market is cooling,” says Thomas Martin from Globalt Investments. The next quarters will have to prove Tesla that the curve is pointing up again-if necessary with further discounts or new product. According to KBB, Volkswagen delivered around 9,600 electric cars in the USA in the first quarter-an increase of 55 percent compared to the previous year. The driver is mainly the SUV ID.4, whose local production in Tennessee now enables higher quantities. VW thus comes to a good 3.3 percent market share in the US electric car segment. BMW was able to increase its US sales with electric cars by 26 percent and sold 13,538 vehicles. Bayern benefit from their strategy to offer wide-ranging e-models: Successful models such as i4 and the SUV IX have found foot in the premium segment, and new offers were added with the Elektro 5er sedan (i5). BMW thus reaches approximately 4.6 percent of the segment and lies in the American market before all other German brands. Audi, on the other hand, remained almost at the previous year’s level: 5905 electric cars mean a lean plus of 3.3 percent. Although Audi brought a new electric SUV with the Q6 e-tron, the sales of the older models E-Tron/Q8 e-tron and Q4 e-tron were declining at the same time. Audi’s market share remains with two percent low. Mercedes-Benz even experienced a bitter damper: the Stuttgarters sold only 3472 Stromer in the first quarter, a break-in by 58 percent compared to the 8336 in the previous year. Mercedes in the US EV market fell from more than three percent to a good 1.2 percent. Apparently, the EQ models (EQS, EQE and SUV derivatives) are difficult-possible reasons are their high price with relatively low range and strong Tesla competition in the premium segment. More on the Themamercedes, it has announced that they have to be introduced to a new EV platform from 2025, but at short notice, the United States seems to be reached. Porsche, in turn, creates a surprise success: the sports car manufacturer increased its US electric sales to 4358 pieces-more than three times as many as in the previous year. The fully electric Taycan-Porsche’s only EV model to date-found the way to the customer in 2024 only limited due to the supply chain, which is obviously normalized. In addition, Porsche should have benefited from the start of the first Macan deliveries. The Zuffenhausen team now sells as many electric cars in the USA as Audi. In total, the five German brands together hold around 12.5 percent of the US electric market. Traditional car manufacturers don’t get only German premium brands, and the American and Asian manufacturers also contest Tesla market shares. Ford dropped a good 22,550 electric cars in the first quarter, about 11.5 percent more than in the previous year. The electric Mustang Mach-E in particular wore 11,600 sales (plus 21 percent) to Ford’s result. With the F-1550-light-pick-up, on the other hand, there was a small decline (minus seven percent to 7187 pieces), which indicates hard competition and production problems. We have already identified General Motors as a big winner-especially thanks to Chevrolet (19.186 EVS, plus 114 percent, driven by the Bolt successor Equinox eV and the first Silverado eV) as well as Cadillac (7972 Lyriq, plus 37 percent). Hyundai and Kia experienced opposing tendencies: Hyundai was able to achieve a slight plus of five percent with 12,843 electric cars-Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 6 run stable here in particular. Kia, on the other hand, recorded a decline of 24 percent with 8656 EV sales. This can be explained by model cycles: The innovative Kia EV6 had a brilliant start in 2024, while in 2025 the demand flattened somewhat; At the same time, the larger SUV EV9 was only at the beginning of the market launch.Start-ups and newcomers show a mixed picture: Rivian delivered 8553 e-pick-ups and SUVs and thus over 37 percent less than a year earlier-after reducing the pre-order congestion, the demand no longer seems to be at the previous year’s level, or Rivian prioritizes the way to profitability. Toyota as a hybrid pioneer now also gets into the BEV segment: from the new SUV BZ4X, Toyota released 5610 pieces (previous year: 1897) and thus overtook niche players such as Volvo and Lexus. Summa Summarum urge as many manufacturers in 2025 to the US market-from pick-up to luxury limousine-and reduce the dependence on market growth of individual brands or models.
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