Al Root
It's spring, but the EV winter has arrived.
Thursday, Ford Motor reported first-quarter U.S. sales. It sold 6,860 all-electric cars in the first quarter, down 70% from the same time a year ago. That result might have been a positive surprise. EV sales actually increased 55% from the 14,513 sold in the fourth quarter.
Fourth-quarter sales fell after buyers rushed to beat the September expiration of the $7,500 federal EV purchase tax credit.
First quarter hybrid electric vehicle sales were 51,073, down 20% from a year ago, accounting for 9% of total car sales, down 1 percentage point from a year ago.
Hybrid and EV sales might get a boost from higher oil prices. But it hasn't shown up in the numbers yet.
General Motors also reported U.S. first-quarter sales on Wednesday. It sold about 26,000 EVs in the first quarter, down 19% from a year ago and flat with the fourth quarter. That isn't too bad, but it's a far cry from the 66,000-plus EVs sold in the third quarter of 2025, before EV credit expiration.
Cadillac's first-quarter dropped 26% from a year ago. Caddy sells a lot of EVs now, including the Vistiq, Lyriq, and Optiq. The loss of the credit has hit those sales harder than other parts of the business.
In 2021, when EVs were a much hotter tech, GM projected 1 million EV sales by 2025. It sold about 170,000. (GM's Chinese business, however, did sell almost 1 million electrified cars in 2025.)
Despite missing the goal, GM stock is still up 26% over the past five years, excluding dividends. Ford stock is down 5% over that span. Shares of Chrysler's parent, Stellantis, are down 58%. Toyota stock is up 34%, while Honda shares are down 20%. The divergent performances show that the EV strategy was only one factor impacting auto sector stocks. Others included currency, tariffs, and capital allocations such as share repurchases.
Overall, GM's first-quarter U.S. sales fell 10% from a year ago, while Ford's sales dropped 9%.
It's a ho-hum start to the year, which investors, overall, expect to yield stable sales and higher profits, partly due to fewer tariff headwinds, and partly due to fewer EV losses. (The companies still lose money on EV sales.) Analysts project a 2026 operating profit of almost $9 billion for Ford, up from $6.8 billion in 2025, and a $14 billion profit for GM, up from $12.7 billion in 2025.
Ford stock was down 0.7% in midday trading at $11.60, while the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average were down 0.2% and 0.3%, respectively. Through midday trading, GM stock was down 11% year to date. Ford shares were off 12%.
Investors appear to be waiting for sales to pick up.
Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com
This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 02, 2026 14:13 ET (18:13 GMT)
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