Kia’s US EV sales plunge 72% in Q2 as market sees first contraction
The U.S. electric vehicle (EV) market posted its first-ever quarterly decline in the second quarter of 2025, weighed down by new vehicle-specific tariffs implemented by the U.S. government in April. Kia’s EV sales in the U.S. plummeted 72.5 percent year-on-year in the period, and combined EV exports from Hyundai Motor and Kia to the U.S. during the January–May period fell by nearly 88 percent, casting a shadow over Hyundai Motor Group’s second quarter earnings outlook.
According to U.S. research firm Cox Automotive on Tuesday, EV sales in the U.S. market totaled 331,853 units in the second quarter, down 6.3 percent from a year ago. This marks the first time the market has shrunk on a quarterly basis since EV sales began accelerating in 2021.
The drop is attributed to the 25 percent U.S. tariff on certain vehicle categories, which has impacted most automakers lacking local EV production capacity. While total new vehicle sales in the U.S. rose 1.7 percent year-on-year to about 4.18 million units in the second quarter, EVs—more vulnerable to the tariff structure—were the first to show signs of a slowdown.
The sales slump hit automakers with low EV localization the hardest. Hyundai Motor Group’s dedicated EV facility, Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America (HMGMA), remains in its ramp-up phase, operating at just 54 percent capacity in the first quarter.
Hyundai’s U.S. EV sales dropped 7.7 percent in the second quarter, while Kia posted a steep 72.5 percent decline and Genesis was down 57.6 percent from the same period last year.
While Hyundai had already shifted production of its IONIQ 5 and IONIQ 9 models to HMGMA, Kia only began full-scale production of its key model EV6 at its Georgia plant in March. As a result, Hyundai sold about 23,000 EVs in Q2—17,924 units of the IONIQ 5 and 5,187 units of the IONIQ 9—whereas Kia’s Georgia plant produced only 12,469 EVs, half that of Hyundai.
Despite holding off on price hikes, Kia’s inability to meet local production targets at its Georgia facility likely contributed to the drop in sales. The weakening EV demand in the U.S. is expected to weigh heavily on Hyundai and Kia’s Q2 earnings, particularly as EVs rely on externally sourced components such as battery cells.
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