Cox Automotive Q3 EV Sales Report

[illopp00]

EV Sales in the U.S. Continue to Rise: Q3 2026 Hits Highest Volume in a Year - Cox Automotive Inc.

The U.S. electric vehicle market delivered its strongest performance in a year during the third quarter. According to Kelley Blue Book estimates, 266,630 EVs were sold in Q3, up 7.7% from the second quarter and the highest quarterly total since…

www.coxautoinc.com

Some slow positive directional increase in sales overall, but still below all of last year quarters other than Q4.

Air is still down big, either lease returns and not re-upping, or at least switching to Gravity. Gravity is in the mix with Ioniq 9, Vistiq, but well behind R1S. EV9 is the king in the semi-premium 3 row. EX90 is a bit of a Gravity roll-out disaster release x3... Audi and MB EV sales have largely been totally vaporized.

 

[gaskiller]

R1s 30% decrease will get worse in Q4. Gravity should sell at least 5k….

 

[Northpointe]

R1s 30% decrease will get worse in Q4. Gravity should sell at least 5k….

The company could only manage to deliver 3,800 vehicles in total in Q3 with heavy incentives. And Napoli has committed to rationalizing production to meet present demand. Reaching 5K Gravity sales would likely mean steep discounts and incentives that would only further add to company losses. What Napoli et al. need to prove is that they can move a decent volume of both current models without incentives. More incentivized sales is just digging a deeper hole.

 

[illopp00]

R1s 30% decrease will get worse in Q4. Gravity should sell at least 5k….

It looks like R2 is eating R1 a bit..

 

[illopp00]

The company could only manage to deliver 3,800 vehicles in total in Q3 with heavy incentives. And Napoli has committed to rationalizing production to meet present demand. Reaching 5K Gravity sales would likely mean steep discounts and incentives that would only further add to company losses. What Napoli et al. need to prove is that they can move a decent volume of both current models without incentives. More incentivized sales is just digging a deeper hole.

Yeah I can't see a pattern here, but the CCS port cars are going to get very difficult to sell going forward...

 

[Pragmatic]

It looks like R2 is eating R1 a bit..

The difference between 2q26 and 3q26 was minimal (2 or 3 hundred). So R2 has not yet cut into R1 sales. The big drop was the loss of tax break between 3q25 and 3q26.

 

[gaskiller]

The difference between 2q26 and 3q26 was minimal (2 or 3 hundred). So R2 has not yet cut into R1 sales. The big drop was the loss of tax break between 3q25 and 3q26.

That’s why I’m sure Q4 R1 sales will be really bad. Just as the Gravity cut into Air sales.

They should release a bare bones Air with 520 mile range…..if Lucid is all about range, then offer it in the Pure. Doesn't make sense to confine to a model costing more than 100k. But that boat probably has sailed. The missteps by Rawlinson and Winteroff are horrendous!

Imagine a 75k 520 mile Air…..enough with the “ post luxury” nonsense. Move vehicles!

 

[illopp00]

The difference between 2q26 and 3q26 was minimal (2 or 3 hundred). So R2 has not yet cut into R1 sales. The big drop was the loss of tax break between 3q25 and 3q26.

That’s why I’m sure Q4 R1 sales will be really bad. Just as the Gravity cut into Air sales.

They should release a bare bones Air with 520 mile range…..if Lucid is all about range, then offer it in the Pure. Doesn't make sense to confine to a model costing more than 100k. But that boat probably has sailed. The missteps by Rawlinson and Winteroff are horrendous!

Imagine a 75k 520 mile Air…..enough with the “ post luxury” nonsense. Move vehicles!

They need to sell an actual 85K -420 mi Gravity, people want cheap range. Just take 10KWhr from the GT battery to get a 420 mi EPA, no options other than color, interior color and sound. Base wheels and suspension only. Make C&C and 7 seat standard for 85K.

They should definitely just release RWD Air GT to keep the range increase (no need for AWD for highway cruising), if they gave it the Gravity charging it would actually dominate, but a CCS port car with slow Tesla charging is not going to sell.

 

[Northpointe]

They need to sell an actual 85K -420 mi Gravity, people want cheap range. Just take 10KWhr from the GT battery to get a 420 mi EPA, no options other than color, interior color and sound. Base wheels and suspension only. Make C&C and 7 seat standard for 85K.

They should definitely just release RWD Air GT to keep the range increase (no need for AWD for highway cruising), if they gave it the Gravity charging it would actually dominate, but a CCS port car with slow Tesla charging is not going to sell.

A RWD Air GT with NACS would be an entirely new car given the engineering changes required. And the large sedan market, at any price point, is a shrinking one. Dominating that market would be like having the best selling convertible.

 

[illopp00]

My understanding is that the RWD part is no engineering, and the Gravity and Air rear drive units are similar enough that it would fit quite easily. But yes improving the charging system might be a lot of work, although I was at the owners club services told me the battery modules between the two are interchangeable, they do have slightly different cells. That would still be a wild decision to decide to go from No 1 in a segment to giving up in 1 year for a company with only 2 models. Having just one model isn't credible.

 

[gaskiller]

My understanding is that the RWD part is no engineering, and the Gravity and Air rear drive units are similar enough that it would fit quite easily. But yes improving the charging system might be a lot of work, although I was at the owners club services told me the battery modules between the two are interchangeable, they do have slightly different cells. That would still be a wild decision to decide to go from No 1 in a segment to giving up in 1 year for a company with only 2 models. Having just one model isn't credible.

Either way that boat has sailed…. Rawlinson messed up with the trims…thought people would go all Gaga over the Air , but released with crappy software and repeated that nonsense with the Gravity….