September 2025 etched a new milestone in the electric revolution, with global plug-in vehicle sales surging 22% year-over-year to over 2.1 million units—a record that signals EVs now claim one in five new cars worldwide. Leading the charge? Tesla's unstoppable tandem: the Model Y at nearly 141,000 units and the Model 3 at over 67,000, securing the top two spots with ease. But as eyes scan the rest of the top 10 leaderboard, a glaring, humiliating truth emerges: not a single other American EV dares to compete. It's as if Detroit's offerings have vanished into thin air, failing to even nudge the list's basement dweller.
The runners-up paint a picture of Asian dominance. China's Wuling Mini EV zipped to third with over 54,000 sales, followed by BYD's Song (46,000), Sealion 06 (31,000), Yuan Up (29,693), and Dolphin (28,422). Changan's Lumin (23,575) and Xiaomi's YU7 (22,387) rounded out the mid-pack, while Volkswagen's ID.4 scraped into 10th with almost 20,000 units—modest by comparison, but still worlds apart from U.S. pretenders. Ford's Mustang Mach-E, America's closest non-Tesla contender, eked out just 9,274 units globally—well below the ~10,000 threshold for leaderboard contention. GM's vaunted Ultium platform? Zilch on the list. Rivian, Lucid, and Fisker? Nonexistent ghosts. In a month where China alone devoured 1.3 million EVs, this American no-show isn't oversight—it's oblivion.
Why the embarrassing eclipse? Legacy automakers like Ford and GM are shackled by decades of internal combustion inertia, pouring billions into half-hearted EV pivots while Tesla's born-electric DNA delivers seamless integration from gigafactories to over-the-air upgrades. Supply chains? U.S. giants scramble for batteries amid tariffs and shortages, jacking up costs that make their vehicles uncompetitive abroad—where the Mach-E lists for premiums no buyer bites. Global reach? Tesla's factories in China, Germany, and Texas export prowess; Detroit's focus remains parochial, U.S.-centric sales buoyed by fleeting tax credits that vanished in September, cratering volumes further. Innovation lags too: clunky software, sparse charging networks, and designs that scream "transitional" rather than revolutionary.
This isn't just a sales gap; it's a national embarrassment for an industry that once ruled roads. As China and Europe electrify at warp speed, why can't America's EV arsenal muster a fight against even the 10th-place scrub? Policy paralysis? Corporate complacency? Or has Tesla's shadow swallowed the competition whole?
Spies, sound off: Is this the death knell for U.S. EV ambitions?