After dragging its heels on electric vehicles for years, Toyota has found itself in an unexpected position at the start of 2026: It’s winning.
Barring any major surprises, the bZ is on track to be the country’s top-selling non-Tesla EV in the first quarter. On Wednesday, Toyota reported selling 10,029 units of the bZ crossover from January through March, a 79% gain over the same period last year. With a strong start to the year and three new electric models landing in 2026, Toyota has quickly gone from an also-ran in the EV world to a real contender.
“That’s one brand I’m going to watch in the next six months,” said Stephanie Valdez Streaty, director of industry insights at Cox Automotive.
Photo by: Patrick George
Some manufacturers have not reported their first quarter sales yet, so in theory things could change. But the bZ managed to beat out the usual suspects that tend to top America’s EV sales charts, so it will very likely hold onto the lead.
Ford sold 4,600 Mustang Mach-Es from January through March, a 60% decline year over year. Hyundai moved 9,790 Ioniq 5s, 14% more than it did in Q1 of 2025. The Chevrolet Equinox EV, last year’s top seller behind the ever-dominant Tesla Model Y and Model 3, did fairly well in Q1 too. But 9,589 units sold means it has lost its “best of the rest” crown to the bZ. (Tesla does not break out U.S.-specific sales, but it’s fair to say the Model Y and Model 3 were in a different universe.)
Meanwhile, EV sales in the U.S. as a whole fell 28% in the first quarter, Cox estimates, to some 213,000 vehicles from nearly 300,000 in the year-ago quarter. Many auto companies have slowed down or reversed their EV plans in the face of looser environmental regulations and the premature end of the federal EV tax credit. In Q1, the electric share of the U.S. car market was 5.8%, Cox says, down about two percentage points year over year.
The pullback also presents opportunity. Toyota has been lathering on above-average discounts to help sell bZs and gain market share, Valdez Streaty said.
“I think that’s their strategy: We want to buy share. And it’s working,” she said. In February, Toyota bZs were selling with incentives worth 30% of their average transaction price, according to Cox’s data. The industry-wide EV average was 14.2% that month.
“We adjust our pricing structure for each of our models based on market conditions, vehicle content, and the competitive landscape,” a Toyota spokesperson said.
Photo by: Patrick George
There are a couple of other reasons for the bZ’s sudden success. It is, hands-down, a better EV than it was last year, benefiting from a top-to-bottom makeover for the 2026 model year. Toyota slashed the price of the base model by over $2,000, bringing it to $36,350 before any discounts. The automaker bumped its maximum range to a respectable 314 miles from a paltry 252, without changing the price of that model by much. Toyota’s EVs aren’t perfect, mind you, and we at InsideEVs are consistently baffled by their lack of one-pedal driving and built-in route planning.
The strength of the Toyota brand is also undeniable. The automaker may have earned a reputation as an EV laggard among hardcore EV fans. And rightly so; the bZ4X (as it used to be called) arrived later than competitors, with worse specs and some missing capabilities. But Toyota is still a company that many Americans trust above most others to make reliable, well-priced cars. In a poll Cox conducted last year, Americans said the top brand they’d want to buy an EV from was Toyota. Another poll showed the same thing. “They have this halo effect,” Valdez Streaty said.
Now that Toyota can meet those buyers where they are—not only with a revamped bZ but also with the bZ Woodland, C-HR, and upcoming Highlander—2026 may be a very good year the company’s EV project, regardless of the timing.
Contact the author: Tim.Levin@InsideEVs.com