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| | | | Happy Friday, and welcome to Critical Materials, your source for the biggest stories shaping the future of the auto industry. | Every Friday, we break down the week’s biggest EV news, keep you up to speed on the cars we’re testing, and recap must-read stories from around the web on driverless cars, batteries, charging, and more. | – Today’s email was written by Rob Stumpf, Mack Hogan, and Tim Levin. |
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| | | | Plug In: EV Sales Are A Hot Mess | | We’ve finally got some good news about the EV market in the U.S. Well, kinda sorta good. In the second quarter, EV sales hit their highest point since the federal tax credit ended last September: 247,226 sales, according to Cox Automotive. But dig a little deeper, and you quickly see that some sellers of EVs are probably a lot happier right now than others. | So, who’s up and who’s down in the EV world? The winners and losers of the first half of 2026 say a lot about where America’s electric car market is going as it finds its footing. | Broadly, EV sales were down 20.5% on a year-over-year basis in Q2, which is obviously not great. But it is better than the sharper declines we saw over the last couple of quarters. For the first half, EV sales were down 23.8%. But the data is noisy, and individual car brands run the gamut. | First let’s discuss some of the winners. | Toyota is zigging while rivals are zagging. For years it was not that serious about EVs, and much more committed to hybrids. But in the first half its EV sales more than doubled, largely on the back of the updated bZ, which moved 17,553 units. |  | Toyota introduced two new EVs, including the bZ Woodland, this year. |
| This time last year, Toyota was behind VW, Rivian, Nissan, Kia, Honda, GMC, Ford, Cadillac, BMW, and Audi. Now it’s ahead of all of them. Lexus also just about doubled its sales in the first half, and Subaru doubled sales in Q2. | Cadillac managed to lift its EV sales 10% in the first half, though that number was buoyed by the Vistiq and Optiq, which ramped up over the course of last year. | Hyundai only declined by about 5%, and as you’ll see in a moment that’s a feat. Ioniq 5 sales rose 9%, making that car America’s favorite non-Tesla EV in the first half. A serious price cut of nearly $10,000 probably helped. | Rivian was up 13.7% to 21,770 vehicles sold on solid performance of its commercial van, Cox says. It even raised its guidance for this year to up to 70,000 units. | For most manufacturers, things were a lot uglier. Demand has been hit by the end of the tax credit—especially for those that haven’t dropped prices—plus companies have cut models and pared back supply. Without any semblance of clean-car regulations in place, car companies are able to just sell fewer EVs if they so choose. | | Acura is down 99% year-to-date. No surprise there, as it canceled its only EV last year and axed its replacement. Honda, by the way, was cut about in half. It completely exited the U.S. EV game this week when it announced that the Prologue will end production this year. Some prologue that turned out to be. | Jeep EV sales fell like a rock, down 94.3% from an already low baseline. The brand’s rugged Recon EV and a Wagoneer EREV are supposed to arrive this year, and those could help. Meanwhile, the Dodge Charger EV was down nearly 88% this year, to a little over 500 units. Stellantis, which also axed all of its plug-in hybrids this year, seems to be backing out fast from EVs in the new environment. | Nissan plunged 88.6% despite the launch of the new Leaf. The volume-selling Ariya is dead, so that’s at play. The Leaf’s tepid sales could be the result of a supply decision. But the new model’s failure to launch makes me wonder what demand really looks like for small, budget EVs. | Volkswagen is down nearly 70% to under 4,000 units in the first half. It makes some sense, as the ID. Buzz is skipping a model year and the ID.4 is canceled. It’s a similar deal at Ford, which had been a strong contender but canceled the F-150 Lightning last year. Its EV sales dropped over 57% in the first half. BMW EV sales dropped by about half, though it has a slew of new and impressive models on the way. Audi sales dropped 85% to just 1,697 units in the first half. |  | Tesla outperformed the U.S. market, but was still down. |
| Tesla managed to outperform the market, with sales down only 10.9%, as estimated by Cox. But remember, 2025 was a historically bad year for the company. | What’s the takeaway? In short, the EV market is still kind of a hot mess right now. | The companies that were the most serious EV contenders in the pre-policy-whiplash era are trying to stay at the top of the heap. Others, like Toyota, see an opening to gain ground. Most are grappling with sagging sales and seeing where things land. Given Honda’s decision this week to axe the Prologue, it’s only EV in the U.S., it’s clear the shakeout isn’t over yet. | (By the way, Mack Hogan and I discussed all of this on this week’s Plugged-In Podcast. If you want to hear more, listen on your preferred platform!) | -Tim Levin |
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| Wish your car insurance was pricier? Didn’t think so. | | Find out if another carrier could offer you a better rate. Compare your offers all in one place and get your best rate on LendingTree. Just answer a few questions and get your quotes in a matter of minutes. | Check My Quotes | | | | Get Fully Charged | | Get up to speed on the news that caught our eye this week: | EV News | Bentley turns its nose up at fake engine noises. Instead, it will pipe in a concerto of drums, viola, and bass. | The Honda Prologue—the brand's last EV in the U.S.—has officially gone the way of the dodo. It's the same fate that the Acura ZDX and planned 0 Series EVs faced. A lot of EVs have been canceled lately, but this one hits different: It means that Honda will have no electric vehicle on offer in the U.S. for the foreseeable future. | A report from an EV blog claimed that Lucid was weighing bankruptcy or a take-private. Lucid denied the claims, calling them “completely false,” but not before its stock managed to plummet over 50%. The company has been on a campaign to contain the damage this week. | Wagon lovers rejoice: Volvo could be bringing back not just a sedan to its U.S. lineup, but a wagon too. | You've probably heard about the gobs of uber-affordable EVs in China, right? Well, they're coming to North America—just not America. Canadians will soon have access to some models that should definitely make you jealous. | A new EV startup called Chip came out of stealth this week, and Tim Levin spoke with one of its cofounders. Its debut vehicle is a $15,000 low-speed EV with optional remote driving. A teleoperator can take care of parking at the beach, for example. | California’s EV rebate is taking shape. The program offers $3,500 off of a new EV for first-time EV buyers. And we just learned which 13 automakers are participating. | Battery and Charging News | Automakers invested heavily in EV battery factories when they thought EVs would boom. Now, those factories are pivoting to energy storage for AI data centers and utility providers. | MG says that its next-gen plug-in hybrids will get semi-solid-state batteries, claiming that it will be the first automaker to mass-produce these types of batteries at scale. | General Motors will soon join the ranks of Ford, Hyundai, Kia, Rivian, Stellantis, Tesla, and Toyota by rolling out a managed charging program. The partnership uses a tie-in with WeaveGrid to help owners charge at off-peak hours for cheaper rates. | Autonomy and Tech News | The mayor of San Francisco is calling for tougher statewide rules around autonomous cars after Waymos reportedly ran out of power and blocked streets in July 4th traffic. | Robotaxi companies are calling 911 on riders who fall asleep inside of their vehicles. It happens so frequently that emergency responders even have a name for it: "sleepers." | Volvo's parent company, Geely, has unveiled a brand new electric drivetrain that combines 12 functions into a single package. It has 30% less wiring than a traditional drive unit and packs 328 horsepower into a single 165-pound piece of hardware. | -Rob Stumpf |
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| | | | Driver’s Seat: Cadillac Escalade IQL | | I’m no fan of giant, over-specced EVs. But when I drove the 9,000-pound, 750-horsepower Escalade IQL, I couldn’t resist its charm. With oodles of range, every tech feature you could fathom, and a luxurious interior, it’s the exact sort of excess that made “Escalade” a household name. Here are my key takeaways. | Pros: | 460 miles of range utterly cures range anxiety. Opulent, comfortable, and spacious inside. Four-wheel steering and effortless power make the size feel manageable.
| | Cons: | Cartoonishly huge and excessive. Expensive, with an as-tested price of $156,315. Worse to drive and 1.5x as much as Cadillac’s other three-row EV, the Vistiq.
| Verdict: | The Escalade IQL is over-the-top in every way. It may not be the EV you really need, but for many Americans, it’s the one they’ll actually want. That’s a victory for the EV market. | Read my full review here. | -Mack Hogan |
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| | | | Before You Go |  | The EV Winners & Losers Of 2026 So Far + Tesla’s Big Comeback |
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| On this week’s Plugged-In Podcast, Mack and I talked EV sales, Tesla’s comeback, and a charming new EV called the Chip. Check it out! | Thanks for reading Critical Materials. See you next week! | -Tim Levin |
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