Tesla tops the American-made list, but at home the market is shrinking

Tesla once again sits at the top of Cars.com’s ranking of the most American-made vehicles, an odd result given that the U.S. electric vehicle market it helped start is now shrinking after federal tax credits went away.

Cars.com said on Tuesday that the Tesla Model 3 took the No. 1 spot on its American-Made Index for the sixth year running.

The Model Y came in second for the second year in a row, handing Tesla the two highest places on the list.

Stellantis’s Jeep grabbed the next two spots with the Gladiator and Grand Cherokee, while Honda landed five vehicles in the top 10 with the Ridgeline, Odyssey, Accord, Passport, and Acura MDX.

This year’s list named 86 vehicles, down from 99 a year ago.

A cooling home market

New EV sales dropped 27% from a year earlier in the first quarter of 2026, to about 216,400 units, according to Cox Automotive’s Kelley Blue Book.

EVs made up just 5.8% of all new-vehicle sales, flat from the prior quarter but well below the 10.6% share reached in the third quarter of 2025.

The end of the $7,500 federal EV tax credit in Q3 was the main reason, and demand has stayed weak since. Some major brands posted Q1 EV sales drops of 60% to 70% or more. The index’s share of electrified vehicles fell from 30% to 24%, and pure EVs on the list dropped from 11 to five.

Tesla’s own U.S. sales fell more than 8% in the quarter, yet the company gained ground as rivals dropped faster. The Model Y and Model 3 together made up 51% of all U.S. EV sales.

Foreign automakers built nearly two-thirds of the list, with Toyota adding 14 vehicles and Honda 13, more than any Detroit company. Tariffs are also changing how people shop.

In a Cars.com survey from early May, almost half of buyers said tariffs worry them, and 42% said tariffs made them more likely to buy an American-made car. Two-thirds would consider one if tariffs lowered the price, 57% would pay more for a vehicle that supports U.S. jobs, and 45% ranked price as the top factor.

Growth picks up overseas

Abroad, the story looks different. In the European Union, Tesla sold 21,767 vehicles in May, lifting its market share to 2.3% from 0.9% a year earlier.

BYD reached 2.7%, up from 1.1%. The EU recorded 955,013 new passenger vehicle registrations that month, a 3.2% rise, with battery-electric cars making up a fifth of the total, up from 15.3%. Over the first five months of 2026, EU registrations rose 4.0%.

Canada, meanwhile, is courting Chinese carmakers, Industry Minister Mélanie Joly told reporters on a call from Tokyo, her stop after the China meetings. BYD, Chery and Geely each told her during her week in China that they would consider building EVs there through joint ventures.

“I was engaging with all these companies to see how that can be done,” she told reporters from Tokyo. Joly’s terms require majority Canadian ownership, Canadian labour and parts, and secure software.

The opening traces to a January deal, reported by Cryptopolitan previously, under Prime Minister Mark Carney that cut Canada’s 100% surtax on Chinese EVs to near 6%. This gave China’s EV additional global advantage.

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