General Motors touts major leap in EV sales ahead of quarterly report

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General Motors slightly more than doubled electric vehicle sales this year compared with the first five months of 2024, which the company said outstripped the industry average for that time period. 

The Detroit automaker broke with its traditional quarterly sales release cycle to report trucks and SUVs from its Chevrolet brand largely drove the difference. GM hasn’t reported vehicle sales on a monthly basis since March 2018. 

Across all brands, GM sold 62,830 electric vehicles from January to May of 2025, with the Chevrolet brand comprising 37,620 of those sales. 

Crosstown rival Ford Motor Co., the only Detroit Three automaker to still report monthly sales, during the same time period, sold 34,132 vehicles across its all-electric vehicle lineup, which currently includes the Mustang Mach-E, F-150 Lightning and the E-Transit van.

While the high percentages seem impressive, a year-over-year comparison presents a low bar, said Sam Abuelsamid, vice president of market research at Telemetry.

Not all of GM's EVs were on the market at the same period last year. The Chevrolet Blazer's stop-sale from software challenges lasted from December 2023 and ended in March 2024, and dealerships didn't receive Equinox vehicles until mid-summer 2024. Cadillac's Optiq and Vistiq vehicles rolled out just this year. Consumer sales of the Silverado EV also didn’t pick up until May 2024 ― prior to that period, the vehicle appeared in only some fleet sales of the work truck configuration.

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“Sales have indeed grown substantially in the past 12 months, but modest increases yield big percentage changes when the numbers are small to begin with,” Abuelsamid said. “It’s a percentage bias and it’s what we’ve been seeing in EV sales for a couple of years.”

That isn’t to say GM’s EV growth spurt isn’t still impressive.

GM is a leader in the electric vehicle space, offering the broadest range of powertrains on the market, according to Alan Haig, president of dealership merger-and-acquisitions firm Haig Partners.

In the firm's most recent industry report, Haig notes GM dealers see great future earnings potential across all four GM brands, which translates into stronger offers on GM dealerships when they go up for sale.

Customers are pouring into dealership showrooms to check out the latest vehicles, Haig said in the report, and that demand then lifts all departments within the dealership. Sales of electric vehicles may be growing exponentially, but they still fall far short of the business the company does with gas-powered models.

“GM’s in a really good spot right now. Their electric vehicles are selling well, but their (internal combustion vehicles) are selling better,” Haig told the Detroit Free Press. “Sitting here today, most customers are choosing gas. And when that tax credit goes away, it’s going to pull demand away from EVs even more.”

Top-selling models

Since the first 100 or so Chevrolet Equinox EVs arrived at dealerships last year, the vehicle has quickly become a top seller for the company’s electric vehicle portfolio. 

Through the second quarter 2024, GM sold 1,013. Even without June sales figures, 21,804 electric Equinox vehicles sold in 2025.

Scott Bell, vice president of global Chevrolet, said more than half of electric-vehicle sales volume this year came from customers new to General Motors. 

“It's certainly the most affordable EV out there with that kind of range. It is by far the leader in the clubhouse — it doubles our Blazer volume easily on a monthly basis,” he said. “Once you convert to an EV, you're not leaving. Especially once you've invested in the infrastructure, a home charger, 86% of them will stay.”

'Refocus on fossil fuels'

Meanwhile, GM’s electric vehicle sales success occurs amid growing concern that a shift to a broader electric vehicle portfolio could harm automakers' long-term profits. Bank of America analyst John Murphy said June 4 while presenting the annual “Car Wars” report that he advised a retreat to gas-powered vehicle production to generate enough cash to protect against an uncertain market.

Much of that uncertainty stems from the White House. In his second term, President Donald Trump has adopted several policies aimed at reducing clean energy incentives. His "Big, Beautiful" tax bill proposes to kill the electric vehicle tax credit by the end of this year and penalize hybrid and electric vehicle owners with annual fees to compensate for lost revenue customers would have paid in gas tax.

Meanwhile, Trump's tariff plans continue to throw a wrench in the intricate multinational supply chain relied on by every automaker that builds and sells vehicles in the United States. Many automakers announced plans to adjust operations and footprints seeking to mitigate costs from tariffs on imported vehicles and auto parts.

But not every Trump-backed initiative has drawn criticism from the industry. The auto sector rejoiced May 22 when the U.S. Senate voted to revoke California’s emissions waivers that would ban the sale of new gasoline-powered cars and trucks by 2035. The week before, GM emailed thousands of its non-hourly employees requesting they use scripted talking points to lobby senators to veto the bill, the Wall Street Journal reported.

“Emissions standards that are not aligned with market realities pose a serious threat to our business by undermining consumer choice and vehicle affordability,” the message reportedly said.  

California, alongside 16 other states and the District of Columbia, would have required electric vehicle sales to comprise over one-third of all vehicles sold in their respective states, which industry leaders warned would result in a dramatic reduction of new vehicle sales in affected markets. Increasing the number of electric vehicles sold, industry leaders warned, would require automakers to send dealerships fewer gas-powered vehicles, limiting the supply of cars that dealerships know they could sell.

Shifting production plans

GM has reported several production changes to electric vehicle manufacturing this year, often citing “marketplace changes.” GM said April 23 that it planned to expand transmission production at its Toledo (Ohio) Propulsions Systems plant where it builds transmissions used in the Silverado and Sierra pickup trucks, while reducing electric drive unit production.

The company announced May 27 its largest-ever propulsion investment would be for gas-powered vehicles, $888 million, on next-generation V-8 engine production. 

Yet the company remains firm that it is not turning away from its zero-emissions objectives. In addition to doubling electric vehicle sales within the first six months of 2025, GM said its share of the electric vehicle market doubled as well. 

Even if the market isn’t where GM planned for it to be when designing its electric portfolio, consumers shouldn’t consider their production changes as a sign the company will abandon its EV goals. If nothing else, Haig said, the company has already spent so much to make sure it wouldn’t be left behind once the market shifted in favor of more electrified options.

“GM has spent billions of dollars on these EV products, and they’re second behind Tesla. They’re trying to get a return on investment on all these products,” Haig said. “But if the CARB mandate is eliminated, ultimately, they’ve got shareholders they need to answer to and they’re making very strong profits on their trucks and SUVs.”

Customer ‘not ready’ to go electric

Despite numerous changes from electric vehicle production, GM still believes in an all-electric future, Barra also said during a Wall Street Journal event last week. 

A full electric vehicle transition depends entirely on what happens with the regulatory environment and national charging network ― the former outpacing GM customer demand, the latter falling behind on the infrastructure needed to improve confidence for vehicle buyers.

“The customer was telling us they weren’t ready,” Barra said onstage at the Future of Everything conference in New York City, adding that regulations requiring 37% electric vehicle sales penetration greatly exceed the 7% of vehicles sold in April. 

“I’ve been saying for a couple of years now that I thought the regulatory environment was getting in front of the customer, and I’ve always said that we needed one national standard,” she said. “We have a portfolio, we’re committed, but frankly, this was necessary for the customer.”

Barra touted GM’s recent investments in charging infrastructure, including partnerships with Pilot Flying J and Tesla Inc. GM is also relying on its dealership network to determine underserved areas that require more charging options. 

“We’ve got to get a little further, and I think that we will,” Barra said. “Every quarter, the infrastructure gets a little better.”

Jackie Charniga covers General Motors for the Free Press. Reach her at jcharniga@freepress.com.