GM's quarter by the numbers
General Motors moved 670,974 vehicles in the third quarter, a 5.5% drop from a year earlier. The EV picture was rough: after a record stretch last year when shoppers accelerated purchases to qualify for federal credits of up to $7,500 before the Trump administration ended them, demand faded and year-over-year comparisons turned sharply negative. The Equinox EV slid 92.4% to 1,905 units, while the Blazer EV fell 84.4% and the Hummer EV declined 72.9%.
GM's value end showed some life even as inflation squeezes budgets. In the quarter, Chevrolet Trailblazer climbed 51%, while Buick Envista advanced 18.4% and Chevrolet Trax rose 16.3%. Still, every GM brand is down so far this year, including a 25% drop at Cadillac.
Hybrids change the leaderboard
Higher gas prices are nudging more shoppers toward hybrids, and that shift helped other automakers top GM in third-quarter sales. Toyota said EVs and hybrids accounted for more than 57% of its sales in the quarter. Overall, Toyota's U.S. deliveries rose 0.6% to 633,223, and electrified sales increased 28.5% to 363,367.
That momentum helped Toyota further close in on the U.S. sales lead, narrowing the gap with GM to under 136,000 vehicles, compared with a full-year difference of about 335,000 last year. Earlier this year, Cox Automotive said that if these patterns hold, Toyota could retake the No. 1 spot in the years ahead.
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Honda, which sells multiple hybrid models and ranks at the top of major automakers for U.S. fuel economy, saw U.S. third-quarter sales grow 9.3% and set a record with more than 106,000 hybrid deliveries in the period. "We've got really high demand for hybrids," said Lance Woelfer, who leads U.S. sales at American Honda Motor. "We're finding more and more consumers are figuring out hybrids meet their needs."
Prices, pickups, and the outlook
With the AAA national average at $4.41 a gallon, analysts expected pressure on the big trucks and SUVs that power GM's profits, and GM said full-size pickup sales were relatively flat. Last month, GM released further details on the new V-8 engines that will go into its pickups as it seeks to keep its lead in truck sales. President of GM North America Duncan Aldred struck an upbeat tone: "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."
Cox Automotive said last week that overall new-vehicle sales this year are running ahead of expectations and lifted its 2026 outlook by about 2% to 16.1 million units. Looking ahead, experts expect GM's limited hybrid lineup, which currently includes only one hybrid model, a Corvette, to weigh on results as hybrids grab more share. For your money, the takeaway is simple: shoppers are voting with their fuel bills, and the brands leaning into hybrids right now are getting more attention from buyers.
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