- General Motors set a full-year EV sales record in 2025, securing its place as the second largest EV seller in the country.
- Year-end BEV sales, however, weren't great.
- What goes up must come down: Q4 showed a much larger retraction than anticipated, as the industry was rocked by the expiration of federal tax credits..
If you zoom out far enough, 2025 was an excellent year for EVs at General Motors. Overall EV sales were up In fact, it was the second-best-selling manufacturer in America as far as EVs were concerned, bested only by Tesla. But we saw both of those things coming from a mile away.
Zoom in on GM’s numbers just a little bit and you’ll see it's not all good news, though. Its numbers fell off a cliff towards the end of the year—a trend we're starting to see across the EV industry as more companies report their final 2025 delivery numbers. GM EV sales fell 43% year-over-year in the fourth quarter, a figure made all the more dramatic by how much growth GM was demonstrating through most of the year.
The slowdown wasn’t supposed to happen this fast. Automakers and investors both expected sales to slip. However, the expectation was that at least some EVs would continue to bolster Q4 numbers. And yet here we are: Q4 numbers didn’t just cool off, they basically jumped head-first into an ice bath even as most of GM’s gas-powered lineup kept chugging along to industry trends as if nothing happened.
In fact, deliveries of every EV sold by GM took a hit last quarter. The Cadillac Lyric, for example, fell more than 45% year-over-year in Q4 while the Chevy Blazer EV nosedived nearly 80% compared to 2024.
GM knew that this was coming. It warned the world that "near-term EV adoption will be lower than planned" in a letter to shareholders at the end of Q3 and, as a result, GM was acting to "address overcapacity" to reduce EV losses in 2026.
The finger is pointed at softened demand thanks to regulatory changes, incentive pullbacks and high interest rates. Cautious consumers gave GM a great Q3 for its EVs, but that was just anticipated demand making accelerated purchases to avoid missing out on the EV tax credit—or basically one last buying binge before the inevitable EV sales hangover began.
What's interesting is that GM didn't stall because it lacks EVs. In fact, GM has been one of the best-selling automakers out there when it comes to affordable battery-powered options. But GM did quickly learn that adoption wasn't universal across all segments. Crossover and luxury markets adapted quickly while full-size trucks barely converted at all (Ford learned a similar lesson).
GM's strategy isn't broken. Early adopters showed up and mainstream buyers cautiously got in line for 2025. Now the market is just adapting to changing conditions and, much like we saw with Cash For Clunkers, it's very possible that Q4's EV demand drop may have been exacerbated by the EV tax credit's discontinuance and sales pushed up to Q3.
If nothing else, 2025 proved that building EVs at scale is no longer a problem for major automakers. The real challenge? Convincing millions of regular buyers to switch to electric without government cash on the hood.
