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The electric vehicle market share in the U.S. (expressed as a percentage) varies based on the metric you’re looking at and your definition of an EV. If we’re talking about new vehicle sales, the percentage of electric cars in the U.S. was 6.5% in February 2026, according to Edmunds sales data. That’s down from 7.4% for all of 2025. There are several reasons why, which we’ll discuss below.
Our EV market share figures don’t include plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs), which we measure separately. PHEVs held a scant 1.6% share of the market in 2025, down from 1.8% in 2024. That position fell to just 0.8% in January 2026. EVs and PHEVs combined made up 7.3% of all new vehicles sold in January 2026.
State of the current electric car market
The electric vehicle market had a tumultuous 2025. While there were a number of new entries in lower price ranges that should have boosted consumer interest, the imposition of stiff new tariffs hurt imported EVs, and the end of the longstanding federal tax incentive for EV buyers squelched the market as the year ended. In the days leading up to the Sept. 30 end of the tax credit program, EV sales and leases briefly skyrocketed as shoppers who’d been on the fence raced to take advantage of the disappearing benefit. That created a sales bump, making 2025 an unusually strong year for electrics. But ultimately, battery-electric vehicles couldn’t maintain that sales pace, and their share of the new-car market dropped nearly a percentage point year over year in the U.S. How the rest of 2026 will go is still up in the air, but however challenging it may look compared to 2025, it almost certainly will be well ahead of the mere 1.1% market share EVs achieved in 2020.
Note: This article primarily focuses on market share percentages, but we have a companion article, How Many Electric Cars Are There in the U.S.?, that goes into more detail about that subject and provides sales numbers and state-by-state breakdowns of EVs on the road.
These gross market share percentages offer only a brief glimpse into the current state of the electric car market and leave a few unanswered questions. So, here are some answers to help better understand what’s happening in the EV market.
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What percentage of cars on U.S. roads are electric?
Nationally, 7.4% of all new passenger car and light truck registrations in 2025 were for electric vehicles, down from a record 8% of light vehicle registrations in 2024, according to S&P Global Mobility. That translates to 1.26 million EV registrations out of 16.25 million total new vehicle registrations in 2025.
In the broadest view possible, IHS Markit data* shows that EVs, which date back to the Nissan Leaf in 2011, accounted for about 1.9% of the 291 million vehicles on the road across the U.S. at the end of 2025, up from 1.4% in 2024.
What is each company’s EV market share?
While Tesla historically has held large EV market share leads, its position dwindled from a nearly 80% share in 2019 to 43.9.% for 2025 as other automakers entering the field brought more rivals for consumers to choose from. Tesla’s EV market share rose again in January — to a healthy 59.7% — as market conditions shifted.
Toyota, way down in 15th place for 2025, saw a hefty increase as 2026 began, thanks to marketing promotions and a substantially improved EV offering. Across all eight brands, their January 2026 market share rose above their full-year 2025 share.
Most automakers, however, saw their EV market share continue to dwindle as the new year began. Chevrolet, for instance, dropped from second place for all of 2025 with a 7.6% share to seventh place in January with just 2.7% of the EV market. Ford, in third place for 2025 with a 7% market share, dropped to eighth with a 2.4% share in January. Positioning could change, of course, as the year goes on.
Here are the latest EV market share percentages, from 2024, 2025 and January 2026, according to Edmunds data. The companies are ranked in descending order by 2025 market share.
