The EV Models With The Best & Worst Trends In The USA — CHARTS

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Overall, EV share of the US auto market was 5.9% in the first quarter of 2026, down from 7.6% in Q1 2025 or the industry peak of 10.6% share in Q3 2025.

Following up on my broader overview of the US EV market in the first quarter of 2026, let’s look more closely at the EV model trends. Below, in charts and text, we’re looking at how much model sales grew or declined when comparing Q1 2026 numbers to Q1 2025, Q1 2024, Q1 2023, Q1 2022, and Q1 2021 numbers.

This is not inclusive of all EV models, for various reasons, but it does cover most EV models on the US market, including the most notable models with the most sales.

In the past, I’ve looked at volume change and percentage change for these comparisons, but I’ve decided to just focus on volume change now, since that is really what matters for deploying more EVs.

Looking at how Q1 2026 sales compare to Q1 2025 sales, the biggest winner was the Tesla Model Y, which had 14,540 more sales. However, remember that last year, the Model Y production line had been shut down in the first quarter to change from production of the original version to production of the new, refreshed version. Also, on the other end of the chart, the biggest loser was the Tesla Model 3, which lost even more sales than the Model Y gained, 20,848.

As we’ve already discussed at length, the Toyota bZ (formerly named bZ4X) and Lexus RZ were the other notable winners — with 4,419 and 3,002 more sales, respectively. Another six models had more than 1,000 unit sales growth — the Hyundai IONIQ 9, Cadillac VISTIQ, Rivian EDV 500/700, Lucid Gravity, Hyundai IONIQ 5, and Cadillac OPTIQ — but note that most of these models were new to the market in the past year or so.

The other biggest losers (aside from the Tesla Model 3), on the other hand, were the Volkswagen ID.4, Ford Mustang Mach-E, and Honda Prologue. With sales declines of 7,325, 7,007, and 6,242, respectively, these caused big losses on the market. However, all together, they still had fewer sales losses than the Tesla Model 3 (barely). But note that none of these brands had big successes on the other end of the chart to help balance things out. Otherwise, as we can see above, another dozen models had thousands of sales losses year over year. Not good. Also, if we looked at percentage change, many of these models had a more than 80% or even more than 90% sales decline.

Looking at how Q1 2026 sales compare to Q1 2024 sales, things change a lot. The Tesla Model Y goes from the biggest winner to the biggest loser! It dropped 18,138 sales compared to two years ago, dwarfing the losses of any other models — but, of course, starting and ending at much higher volumes than anyone else as well. The next biggest loser was the Chevy Bolt, which dropped 6,249 units. That said, on the flip side, the Chevy Equinox EV was by far the biggest winner, with 9,589 more sales YoY.

The Volkswagen ID.4 was again a huge loser, explaining why Volkswagen is dropping production of the EV in the US. Then there’s Ford dropping the ball again, with the F-150 Lightning (now being discontinued) and Mustang Mach-E dropping by several thousand sales each.

The second biggest winner, clearly, was the Toyota bZ, which grew by a whopping 8,132 sales. That was followed by the Honda Prologue, Hyundai IONIQ 5, Lexus RZ, and Cadillac OPTIQ. Though, note that the Prologue and OPTIQ weren’t really on the market in Q1 2024.

Well, you can see other big winners and losers in the chart above, which is actually quite balanced.

Looking at how Q1 2026 sales compare to Q1 2023 sales, it gets … weird. There are a lot of models that weren’t on the market a few years ago. On the flip side, several of the industry’s big hitters are down dramatically, including the Tesla Model 3, Chevy Bolt, Tesla Model Y, and Volkswagen ID.4 down on the bottom.

Looking at how Q1 2026 sales compare to Q1 2022 sales, it’s similar to the comparison to 2022. However, the Tesla Model Y was on the positive side of the chart this time. That said, the three biggest drops were all Tesla models, with the Model 3 being the worst by far.

Overall, there are many winners going back this far, which is one of the most uplifting things about this report.

Looking at how Q1 2026 sales compare to Q1 2021 sales, well, we’ve probably gone back too far now, but it does show how far we’ve come in five years! Almost every model is in the plus, and there are only a handful of big losers.

I’ll leave it to you now to add anything else you have to add. I’m sure commenters will come up with some great insights.

Also, as a reminder, here are the EVs’ total Q1 2026 US sales: