• Tesla registrations rose by 11.8% in California in Q2.
• The company's sales were badly battered last year when the backlash to Elon Musk's involvement in politics was at its peak. 
• EV sales are creeping back to normal in the state, while hybrids are booming. 

Things got pretty ugly for Tesla early last year, when the backlash to Elon Musk's involvement in the Trump administration hit fever pitch. I remember biking by a big Tesla service center near me in the San Francisco Bay Area and seeing several Teslas that had been smashed and spray painted. Tesla sales dropped around that time across the globe, and in the EV stronghold of California, too. Then the EV tax credit got axed, dealing another blow to EVs broadly and to America's market leader specifically.

Now Tesla seems to be bouncing back. In the second quarter, Californians registered 45,953 new Teslas, according to a report from the California New Car Dealers Association (CNCDA) that cites Experian data. That's an 11.8% increase from Q2 of last year.

To be sure, that's still several thousand vehicles short of Tesla's performance during the same quarter in 2024, and year-to-date Tesla registrations in the state are still down 6.5%. But it's progress, and Tesla is doing far better in California than it is in the rest of the country. The automaker's sales dropped 13.1% in the most recent quarter nationwide, according to estimates from Cox Automotive. The Model Y remained the top selling vehicle of any kind in California through June, with over 54,000 units registered. It beat the No. 2 Toyota Camry by over 20,000 registrations, Experian data shows. 

The picture for EVs broadly in California is more mixed. Sales dropped by about 8% year-over-year in the quarter, according to the CNCDA report, compared to 20.5% nationally. EV registrations in the state also showed signs of a serious rebound by jumping 40% as compared with Q1.

Market share for EVs landed at 17.8% in Q2 in California, about triple what it is nationwide and less than half a percentage point off of Q2 2025. That's well below historic highs; for the full year of 2024, EVs claimed 22% of California's car sales. Between the abundant charging infrastructure, strong base of existing EV owners, and local incentives, it makes sense that California is heading off the worst of the tax credit rug pull better than some other areas. 

Still, EVs are not growing like they used to in the state, and now hybrids are taking up that mantle. Hybrid market share hit 23.2% in the second quarter. Full EVs trounced hybrids for years in California, but that may change in 2026. So far this year, Californians have bought a little over 137,000 EVs—and 191,000 hybrids. Even in America's biggest market for electric cars, it looks like it's the year of the hybrid. 

Contact the author: Tim.Levin@InsideEVs.com 

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