California is way and away the electrical automobile chief within the US. In actual fact, even globally, California has a excessive proportion of 100% electrical automobile (ZEV) gross sales. Nonetheless, as the unique house of Tesla Motors (now simply “Tesla”), California has been closely reliant on Tesla for its excessive ZEV gross sales. That’s altering, however maybe only a bit too quick.
Largely on account of the intense political actions of its CEO, the face of the model, however maybe additionally from rising competitors and market saturation, Tesla gross sales have crashed in California this yr. The good information is that non-Tesla ZEV gross sales have gone up … however not sufficient to make up for Tesla’s crash. On the finish of the day, ZEV market share dropped from 22% in 2024 to 19.5% within the first half of 2025, however that was on the again of Tesla gross sales dropping 18.3% yr over yr — from 101,991 gross sales within the first half of 2024 to 83,375 gross sales within the first half 2025. It’s nearly like trashing California, trashing Democratic politicians, and trashing Democratic insurance policies (that help Tesla) was unhealthy for the Tesla model in California….
Whole ZEV gross sales within the first half of 2025 had been 184,234, and complete plugin hybrid gross sales had been 36,266 (3.8% of the general market).
Wanting on the numbers on a quarterly foundation, ZEV registrations totaled 88,219 (18.2% of the auto market), down from 96,015 registrations within the first quarter (20.8%). That is truly probably the most surprising level for me, as a result of Tesla gross sales had been presupposed to rebound strongly within the second quarter, since Tesla modified over manufacturing traces for the brand new Mannequin Y within the first quarter. Tesla was not presupposed to see a quarter-over-quarter drop in gross sales. Yr over yr, the quarterly gross sales had been down from 22% within the second quarter of 2024 to the aforementioned 18.2%.
Plugin hybrids rose barely quarter over quarter and yr over yr. They scored 15,001 registrations (3.3% of the market) within the second quarter of 2024, 17,269 gross sales (3.7% of the market) within the first quarter of 2025, after which 18,997 gross sales (3.9% of the market) within the second quarter of 2025.
19.5% ZEV share of the market continues to be excess of the US common of seven.8%. Total, California accounts for 28.6% of the US ZEV market.
I’ll cowl particular automobile segments and high promoting fashions quickly, however the massive story in California is clearly Tesla’s dropping gross sales in its unique house state.
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