Electric vehicle sales slow in North America, while China surges
End of federal tax credit has impact US EV sales
Electric truck sales in the United States might be hitting its first significant speed bump since original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) started deploying the technology, according to recent reports from top researchers.
U.S. electric truck sales seemed to have slowed considerably in the first half of 2026, nearly flat when compared with the same time period in 2025. That’s in stark contrast with the worldwide trend, as global sales of medium- and heavy-duty electric trucks hit a record 158,000 vehicles in the first half of 2026. That’s a surge of 75% from the same period a year prior, according to BloombergNEF, the research arm of media giant Bloomberg LP. But we can thank China for those figures, as more than 90% of the world’s electric trucks were sold there. Electric truck sales in China now account for about 20% of the country’s total truck sales.
Photo by xubingruo/E+ via Getty ImagesAnd even though China’s the largest market, its country-wide electric truck share ranks third behind Switzerland and Norway, where EVs represent 26% and 23% of their respective country’s total truck sales. For some perspective, BloombergNEF reports that 5.5% of Europe’s continent-wide truck sales during that period were electric.
In the U.S., the electric share is far smaller — around only about one-half of a percent of all truck sales.
There have been some obvious headwinds in the U.S. of late, both economically and politically. The expiration of the federal tax credit for EV purchases on Sept. 30, 2025, on the heels of the passage of the “Big, Beautiful Bill,” certainly had a negative impact on U.S. EV sales.
More recently, Reuters reports that in Q3 of 2026, North American EV sales posted a sharp drop of 44% versus the same period in 2025. That, Reuters notes, was in large part due to the rush on EV purchases in Q3 2025 immediately before the tax incentives expired.
But despite the recent softness in growth, market analysts at Grand View Research, anticipate that last-mile deliver EVs will still enjoy a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.9% in North America through 2033. That’s just a few ticks below the global market projection of 19.9% for that same seven-year time period.
In financial terms, the worldwide market for last-mile delivery EV reached $33.7 billion in 2025, Grand View Research reports, with that figure expected to more than triple to $139.4 billion by 2033.
Grand View notes that rising fuel prices, tightening emission norms, and rapid expansion of eCommerce and same-day delivery services will be the key drivers of EV expansion.
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