Chevy Equinox EV sales plunged 92% year over year during the third quarter of 2026, after General Motors sold only about 1,905 vehicles in the United States, compared with more than 25,000 in the third quarter of 2025. This decline puts the electric sport utility vehicle amid a rapid shift in the ranking of GM’s best-selling electric models.
Equinox EV was GM’s best-selling electric vehicle in 2025, and it also ranked third in the U.S. market behind Tesla Model 3 and Model Y. However, its sales during the first nine months of 2026 fell to 18,154 vehicles, a 65% decline from approximately 53,000 vehicles during the same period of the previous year.
Broad Decline in GM Electric Vehicle Sales
Equinox EV’s decline came amid weaker performance from most of the group’s electric models. Chevy Blazer EV sales fell 84% to 5,199 vehicles, while Silverado EV sales totaled about 1,655 vehicles, down 58% year over year. Hummer EV recorded 1,423 vehicles, a 73% decline, while Sierra EV sales fell 50.8% to 1,661 vehicles.
Overall, GM’s U.S. sales fell 6% during the third quarter to 670,974 vehicles. The company attributed this performance to “a much smaller electric vehicle market” and to vehicles whose production it discontinued. The most notable exception was the new Chevy Bolt, which added 3,866 vehicles to GM’s total electric vehicle sales during the quarter.
Cadillac Offsets Part of the Decline
Although sales of all the mentioned Cadillac electric models declined compared with the previous year, its sport utility vehicles accounted for nearly half of GM’s electric vehicle sales in the third quarter. Cadillac sold approximately 3,617 Lyriq vehicles, 4,550 Optiq vehicles, and 2,587 Vistiq vehicles, in addition to 1,604 Escalade IQ and Escalade IQL vehicles.
Optiq experienced the smallest decline among these models, down 6.9%, while Lyriq declined 50%, Vistiq fell 34.1%, and Escalade IQ/IQL declined 29%. According to the source material, Cadillac expanded its lead in the U.S. luxury electric vehicle market by 1.3 percentage points through the end of August.
What Is Changing in Practice?
The figures show that GM’s possession of a broad range of electric vehicles does not guarantee a stable market share; the decline affected the model that had been leading its sales, while Cadillac’s luxury models now play a larger role within the company’s portfolio. The comparison also points to increasing pressure on lower-priced electric vehicles, particularly with Toyota bZ and Kia EV3 entering the U.S. market.
GM faces an additional constraint with its Chevy Bolt production plans. According to what Reuters reported and the source material relayed, the company intends to produce approximately 75% fewer vehicles than previously planned, with production of roughly 35,000 vehicles before production ends as scheduled in the first quarter of 2027, following the end of the $7,500 federal tax credit. The figures alone do not establish the reasons for Equinox EV’s sales collapse, but they show that GM is entering the next phase with limited ability to rely on a single mass-market electric model.