The U.S. electric vehicle market isn’t taking off the way many expected.
After years of government subsidies and corporate push themselves, 2025 is the year when electric vehicle dreams and reality collide.
Consumers are flocking to car dealerships to buy electric vehicles before the $7,500 tax credit expires in September.
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2025 (as of September): More than 1 million units, market share 10.5%
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2024: 1.3 million, market share 8.1%
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2023: 1.2 million, market share 7.8%
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2022: 800,000 5.8%, market share
Source: Cox Automotive
But even this buying spree has had its problems.
U.S. consumers purchased 90 different electric car models in the third quarter, but only nine sold more than 10,000 units.
The Tesla Model Y and Model 3 were the best-selling models, with sales of more than 114,000 and 53,000 units respectively, while the Chevrolet Equinox sold just under 25,000 units.
But all three models are outliers.
“The vast majority of electric vehicles sell well below 2,000 units per month, or 6,000 units per quarter. In the volume-driven business of automaking, low sales are the enemy; EV profitability remains a distant dream for nearly all automakers,” Cox Automotive said.
With the writing on the wall, OEMs like General Motors have been rethinking their EV strategies.
The General Motors plant in Lordstown, Ohio, is going through some big changes.Grillo/Bloomberg via Getty Images
General Motors said it and other original equipment manufacturers will lose billions of dollars on investments in electric vehicles due to changes in government policy.
“With recent U.S. government policy changes, including the end of certain consumer tax incentives for electric vehicle purchases and the easing of the stringency of emissions regulations, we expect the adoption of electric vehicles to slow,” GM said in an October 8-K filing.
General Motors is preparing to spend billions of dollars to adjust its production of electric vehicles.
The company’s board approved a $1.6 billion third-quarter charge for General Motors North America for “planned strategic adjustments to our electric vehicle capacity and manufacturing footprint” to meet consumer demand.
As a result, General Motors announced it would lay off more than 1,000 workers at Plant Zero, its all-electric vehicle assembly plant in the Detroit-Hamtramck area of ​​Michigan.
GM also said it would reduce factory production to one shift.
But its adjustment in the scale of electric vehicle production does not end there. On Monday, January 5, workers at GM’s Lordstown, Ohio, plant where it makes some fuel cells for electric vehicles received similar bad news.
