Only 6 Auto Brands Had EV Sales Growth In USA In 1st Quarter 2026


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As I was preparing the 1st quarter 2026 US EV sales report, one more thing jumped out at me that I wanted to highlight before working on our normal quarterly articles. Out of more than a couple dozen auto brands, only six had EV sales growth in the 1st quarter compared to the 1st quarter of 2025.

I’m going to briefly highlight the stats for each of these, going in order of highest volume growth to lowest volume growth.

Toyota

Toyota, as we’ve already discussed, had huge, surprising sales growth of its one and only EV, the bZ. Oh, wait, the brand does have one more EV model now — an electric CH-R. It had 13 deliveries in the first quarter….

Anyway, though, here are the key stats from Toyota:

  • 4,432 more EV sales, going from 5,610 to 10,042
  • 79.0% sales growth (the second best result in terms of percentage sales growth)

Lexus

Toyota’s luxury brand was right behind Toyota for EV sales growth. As I discussed earlier today when I discovered and was perplexed by the Lexus RZ’s sales surge, something is going on at Toyota Motor Corporation that completely bucks the US EV sales trend and is very hard to understand or explain. But yay!

  • 3,002 more EV sales, going from 1,454 to 4,456
  • 206.7% sales growth

Rivian

While Rivian didn’t have as many sales as it wanted, it did beat Wall Street expectations. It was also one of the few brands to achieve significant sales growth.

  • 1,812 more EV sales, going from 8,553 to 10,365
  • 21.2% sales growth (also third in terms of percentage sales growth)

Cadillac

Cadillac Vistiq SUV
Credit: Cadillac

Cadillac is still the legacy auto brand with the highest percentage of its sales coming from EVs, with 30.7% of its total sales coming from EVs in the first quarter of the year.

  • 1,579 more EV sales, going from 7,972 to 9,551
  • 19.8% sales growth

Ram

Ram? Ram….

Well, Ram didn’t knock it out of the park in the 1st quarter — not in the least. It didn’t have many EV sales at all. However, it didn’t have any sales last year, so there was no way its new (and first) EV wouldn’t bring sales growth!

  • 223 more EV sales, going from 0 to 223

Lucid

Last but … oh, yes, least … we have Lucid. Let’s just remember it was one of the only brands that had EV sales growth to start this year, so it was a winner in that regard. Its sales growth was just minimal.

  • 87 more EV sales, going from 2,464 to 2,551
  • 3.5% sales growth

So, those are the auto brands doing better so far this year. Let’s see how many more brands join the list in the second quarter. The list has to grow, especially with the US–Israel war on Iran jacking up gas prices significantly week after week. As I just wrote, electric cars (especially solar-powered electric cars) can be huge money savers for people across the world right now, even Americans. Even though the $7,500 US EV tax credit was available last year until the 4th quarter and is no longer incentivizing sales, people can see that there are financial benefits to buying an electric car.


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