ICE vehicle sales dropped 28% from 2017 peak, while EV sales soared 648% over same period.

By Wolf Richter for WOLF STREET.

Tesla, California’s native son that once walked on water, and the only major automaker that manufactures in California, lost market share for the second year in a row in 2025 in California, but its Model Y was still the #1 bestselling model, with a share of 6.1% of all new vehicles sold, outselling by a huge margin the #2 bestseller, the Toyota RAV4 (share of 3.6%), according to registrations data released by the California New Car Dealer Association (CNCDA).

The pecking order of the top 6 bestsellers remained unchanged from last year. But further down the list, there was some elbowing for position: The national #1 bestseller, the Ford F-series pickup moved up two notches to #7 in California, pushing down the Toyota Corolla and the Chevrolet Silverado, each one notch. Thereby, the Silverado, national #2 bestseller, landed in the #9 slot in California.

The red bars are battery electric vehicles (EVs). The blue bars are ICE vehicles, including hybrids (if it has an ICE under the hood and the driver fills it up with gas, it’s an ICE vehicle, even if it has some electric components in its powertrain).

The most popular brand in California, Toyota, increased its share to 17.8%. Honda leapfrogged Tesla and reclaimed its classic hold on the #2 spot with a share of 10.8%.

Tesla lost lots of ground. Its share dropped to 9.9% of total new vehicle sales in 2025, from 11.6% in 2024 and from 13.0% in 2023. It had been #2 in those two years. In 2023, it was only 2.7 percentage points behind Toyota; now it is 7.9 percentage points behind.

California accounted for 11% of Tesla’s global sales.

But Tesla is still the #1 US brand on this list, ahead of Ford (7.7%) and Chevrolet (6.3%).

Overall vehicle sales in California (yellow in the chart below) rose by 3.3% in 2025 to 1.806 million vehicles, but where down by 11% from the peak in 2017.

ICE vehicle sales rose by 4.8% to 1.429 million vehicles in 2025, but where down by 28% from 2017.

EV sales dipped by 1.9% in 2025, but were up by 648% from 2017. And non-Tesla EV sales jumped in 2025:

• Non-Tesla EV sales: +8.7% to a record 198,560 vehicles.
• Tesla sales: -11.4% in 2025, and -22% over the past two years, to 179,656 vehicles.
• Cybertruck sales: -18% to 7,321 trucks, accounting for only 4.1% of Tesla’s total sales in California.

Quarterly EV sales were quite a spectacle. The federal EV incentives expired on September 30, which had triggered massive frontrunning by EV buyers, and sales exploded to a record 47,040 vehicles in Q3.

But then in Q4, the hangover set in, and EV sales replunged to 86,092, a hair below the sales volume in Q2.

The spike in Q3 was driven by record sales of non-Tesla EVs. Tesla’s sales also increased in Q3 but remained well below its Q3 sales in 2023 and 2024.

But then in Q4, non-Tesla EV sales plunged more than Tesla EV sales, and for the first time since Q3 2024, Tesla sold more EVs in California than all other EV makers combined.

The annual share of EV sales fell to 20.9% of total sales, including fleet sales, in 2025 from the record share of 22.0% in 2024, as California’s native son that still totally dominates the industry, ran into rough waters.

In terms of retail sales (excluding fleet), the share of EV sales in Northern California was 24.6%; and in Southern California 21.8%, according to the CNCDA registrations data.

And in case you missed it: Ugly Charts of US Auto Sales, 2025: Stellantis, Nissan Flirt with Catastrophe. GM, Ford, Honda Sales Rise but far below Peaks. Toyota & Hyundai-Kia Set Records

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WOLF STREET FEATURE: Daily Market Insights by Chris Vermeulen, Chief Investment Officer, TheTechnicalTraders.com.