Toyota Suddenly Has a Top-Selling Battery-Electric Vehicle In America In Its New bZ - “Don’t Call It a Comeback”

OK, admit it; you don’t know what a Toyota bZ or Lexus RZ is, right? Well, they are a pair of battery-electric vehicles, and Toyota sold a bunch of them in January in the U.S. A relative bunch, more accurately.

We’ve been looking over the EV delivery data from the brands that are brave enough to publish it, and it’s a horror show for any EV advocate. We’re in our fifth month now since the federal EV subsidies went bye-bye, so you can put to pasture “Q3 was a pull-in” and “Q4 is a hangover” excuses. EVs are on the decline in America, and the data we have shows that.

So here are the fun facts you may have been waiting for. Toyota sold 2,769 bZs in January. That is more than the Hyundai Ioniq 5 (2,126). Hyundai, Kia, Honda, Acura, and Subaru all reported EV deliveries today, and none of them has an EV of higher volume than the Toyota bZ. Combine the bZ with the Lexus RZ (933 units) and compare that to either Hyundai or Kia's total reported EV deliveries, and Toyota is still ahead.

So which EV models are the delivery leaders in America for January 2025? Here is the list based on past trends and some hard data:

1. Tesla Model Y
2. Tesla Model 3
3. Chevy Equinox EV (Maybe)
4. Either the Toyota bZ or the Ford Mustang Mach-E

We reached out to Nissan, but they opted not to offer the Leaf's delivery number. Interesting.... We may get Ford data sometime this week. If we do, we’ll update the list.

What we find notable about this new shuffling of the top EV models is that Toyota was the second manufacturer in America to offer a battery-electric vehicle in the modern age that started 30 years ago. The RAV4 EV was released to customers a few months after the GM EV-1 in 1997. The RAV4 EV was produced in higher volumes, and was an EV delivery volume leader in the U.S. until around 2000-2010. RAV4 EV’s second generation was produced shortly after the Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt entered the market, and it was a top-three BEV for a short stint. Tesla’s Model S didn’t join the party until 2012.

Ready for a fun bonus fact? The Lexus RZ battery-electric vehicle outsold every BEV at Honda, Acura, Subaru, and Kia in January. It is very likely a top-ten best-selling EV in America as well. 

Did you have the Toyota bZ on your scorecard as a top-selling EV this year? Tell us in the comments below. 
 

John Goreham is the Vice President of the New England Motor Press Association and an expert vehicle tester. John completed an engineering program with a focus on electric vehicles, followed by two decades of work in high-tech, biopharma, and the automotive supply chain before becoming a news contributor. He is a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE int). In addition to his fourteen years of work at Torque News, John has published thousands of articles and reviews at American news outlets. He is known for offering unfiltered opinions on vehicle topics. You can connect with John on LinkedIn and follow his work on his personal X channel or on our X channel. John employs grammar and punctuation software when proofreading, and he sometimes uses image generation tools. 

Images courtesy of Toyota media gallery.