General Motors on Thursday reported a year-over-year sales decline of 5.5%, with 670,974 new vehicles sold during the third quarter.
GM’s sales of all-electric vehicles are down across the board, as enthusiasm for EVs wanes. EV demand spiked last year ahead of the Trump administration ending up to $7,500 in federal incentives for consumers to purchase an electric vehicle. During the same period last year, GM reported record sales of its electric vehicles.
Against those comparisons, EVs this year saw dramatic drops, with the Equinox EV down 92.4% during the most recent quarter, at 1,905 vehicles sold. The Blazer EV was down 84.4% and Hummer EV sales fell 72.9%.
The report comes after Cox Automotive said last week that new vehicle sales have been stronger than expected this year and raised its 2026 forecast by roughly 2%, to 16.1 million units.
Hybrid vehicle sales are expected to capture a growing market share of car sales, as inflated gas prices pressure consumers.
Despite offering a broad EV lineup, the Detroit automaker only offers one hybrid vehicle, a Corvette. Experts expect GM’s weakness in the sector to impact its overall sales.
Hybrids assisted other automakers in outperforming GM in third-quarter sales.
Toyota Motor reported that its EV and hybrid vehicles made up over 57% of the Japanese automaker’s sales this quarter.
Toyota said sales were up 0.6% for the most recent quarter, with 633,223 vehicles sold. Sales of its electrified vehicles, which include hybrids, were up 28.5%, with 363,367 units sold.
That helped Toyota continue to narrow its gap with U.S. sales leader GM, which is now less than 136,000 units. That compares to a full-year gap of roughly 335,000 units last year.
Cox Automotive earlier this year said if such sales trends continue, Toyota could once again overtake GM to become the U.S. sales leader in the coming years.
Honda Motor, which also offers several hybrids and leads major automakers in fuel economy in the U.S., reported a 9.3% increase in U.S. third-quarter sales. Its hybrid sales were a record of more than 106,000 units during the quarter.
“We’ve got really high demand for hybrids,” Lance Woelfer, head of American Honda Motor’s U.S. sales, told CNBC. “We’re finding more and more consumers are figuring out hybrids meet their needs.”
High fuel prices, with an AAA national average of $4.41, were also expected to impact sales of big trucks and SUVs, sectors that GM relies on. GM’s full-size pickups were relatively flat.
Each of the automaker’s brands are down so far year-to-date, led by a 25% decline in Cadillac.
GM’s lower-cost vehicles are a bright spot for the company as consumers face high inflation. The Chevrolet Trailblazer was up 51% for the third quarter, while sales of Buick Envista were up 18.4% and Chevrolet Trax up 16.3%.
Despite falling sales, President of GM North American Duncan Aldred remained optimistic.
“Our business is performing very well, the launch of our next-generation full-size pickup trucks is on track, and we are making investments in new vehicles, innovative technologies, and our U.S. manufacturing footprint to drive our next phase of growth,” Aldred said in a statement.
General Motors last month announced additional details about its new V-8 engines for its pickup trucks, as it attempts to maintain leadership in truck sales.
