General Motors delivered 670,974 vehicles in the third quarter, a 5.5% year-over-year decline that shrinks its lead over Toyota to less than 136,000 units from roughly 335,000 a year ago. The Detroit automaker’s EV lineup collapsed against inflated 2025 comparisons while Toyota’s electrified portfolio, hybrids included, grew 28.5% to 363,367 units and crossed the 57% share threshold.

The EV comparison problem

GM’s all-electric sales fell across every model. The Equinox EV dropped 92.4% to 1,905 units, the Blazer EV 84.4%, the Hummer EV 72.9%. The source of the distortion is explicit: last year’s spike was driven by buyers rushing ahead of the Trump administration’s removal of up to $7,500 in federal purchase incentives. GM reported record EV sales in that quarter; this year it is lapping that record with nothing to replace it.

Hybrids carry Toyota and Honda

Toyota’s third-quarter total rose 0.6% to 633,223 vehicles. Its electrified sales, a category that bundles hybrids with battery-electrics, jumped 28.5%. Honda posted a 9.3% U.S. sales increase and a record hybrid quarter above 106,000 units. “We’ve got really high demand for hybrids,” Lance Woelfer, head of American Honda Motor’s U.S. sales, told CNBC. “We’re finding more and more consumers are figuring out hybrids meet their needs.” GM offers one hybrid, a Corvette.

The truck question

High fuel prices, AAA’s national average sits at $4.41, were expected to punish the full-size trucks and SUVs GM depends on. Its pickups were relatively flat. Cox Automotive last week raised its 2026 industry forecast roughly 2% to 16.1 million units, suggesting the overall market is healthier than GM’s number implies. Cadillac led the company’s year-to-date brand declines at 25%. The Chevrolet Trailblazer rose 51%, the Buick Envista 18.4%, the Chevrolet Trax 16.3%.

Aldred sees a different picture

“Our business is performing very well, the launch of our next-generation full-size pickup trucks is on track, and we are making investments in new vehicles, innovative technologies, and our U.S. manufacturing footprint to drive our next phase of growth,” Duncan Aldred, president of GM North America, said in a statement. Last month GM detailed new V-8 engines for those pickups. The gap to Toyota is now small enough that Cox has said the Japanese automaker could retake the U.S. sales crown in the coming years if current trends hold.