Very Mixed Trends in California EV Market by Brand in Q2

I recently wrote about the top selling EV models in California, and also EV models doing well in their vehicle segments in California. Now, though, let’s look more closely at how different auto brands did in the state in the second quarter.

First of all, looking at the top selling auto brands overall (of all powertrains combined), we still have one EV-only brand in the top 15. That’s Tesla, of course. The bad news (from an EV perspective) is that Tesla dropped from #2 in the California auto market in Q2 2024 to #3 in Q2 2025. Furthermore, Ford is right on its tail, whereas in Q2 2024, Ford was about 20,000 sales behind Tesla. And, heck, Chevrolet isn’t even that far behind now. Could Tesla drop to 5th this year?

Looking just at ZEV sales, well, once company stands alone. Tesla is so far above #2 Hyundai that it’s shocking. And every other brand is even further behind. So …

… I decided to create another chart for this with Tesla excluded, so that we can better compare the other brands at least. Here we can see Hyundai, BMW, and Chevrolet neck and neck. Not even 50 sales separated these three brands in the second quarter. From #3 down, it’s sort of cascading results.

Overall, though, it’s just disappointing that more brands aren’t selling several thousand EVs, or tens of thousands of EVs, a quarter. And then the one company that is, is facing its own problems.

As we can see in this next chart, Tesla sales dropped by more than 11,000 units in Q2 2025 versus Q2 2024. That’s a big, perhaps even devastating, drop.

Excluding Tesla again so that we can see the others better, this is where it gets most interesting for this report. Some brands are up significantly with their EV sales, while others are down significantly. Chevrolet, Nissan, Acura, and Honda took big leaps forward, and we also have notable increases at a bit of a lower level from Porsche, Cadillac, and Volvo.

But then other auto brands have been suffering when it comes to their EV sales. Kia, Hyundai, Ford, Mercedes, Rivian, Toyota, Volkswagen, and Volvo did particularly poor year over year in the second quarter. Why? That’s the question.

There are some interactive versions of a few of the above charts down below here. Enjoy.