Electric vehicles made up about 2.6% of registered light-duty vehicles in the U.S. at the end of June, while mild hybrids reached a record share of repairable collision claims in the second quarter, according to reports from the Alliance for Automotive Innovation and Mitchell.
"As hybrid adoption grows, auto insurance and collision executives can expect an increase in demand for underwriting and repairing a broader range of electric vehicles," according to Mitchell's second-quarter Plugged-In: EV Collision Insights report, which tracks repairable claims by powertrain.
EVs reach 7.9% of new light-duty sales in second quarter
The Alliance, which represents automakers, suppliers, and other auto industry companies, announced its second-quarter report Sept. 23. Sales of electric vehicles (EVs) totaled 328,799 in the quarter, equal to 7.9% of new light-duty sales, according to the report, which also covers registrations and charging infrastructure.
The share was up 1.6 percentage points from the first quarter, the first quarter-over-quarter increase since the third quarter of 2025, the Alliance said. EV sales dropped by about 56,200 vehicles, or 15%, from the second quarter of 2025, a period in which total light-duty sales grew 2%, the report shows.
For the first half of 2026, EV sales totaled 556,477, down 26.8% from the same period a year earlier, according to the Alliance. The sales figures are based on new-registration data from S&P Global Mobility, the report states. The Alliance counts battery, plug-in hybrid, and fuel cell electric vehicles as EVs.
The Alliance counted about 7.8 million registered EVs as of June 30, using S&P registered-vehicle data. That equals 2.63% of nearly 296 million registered light-duty vehicles, the report states. The share was 2.48% at the end of 2025 and 2.54% after the first quarter.
The number of registered EVs grew by nearly 1.2 million during the past 12 months, according to the report, even though new EV sales fell after federal purchase incentives ended. The $7,500 federal EV tax credit expired Sept. 30, 2025.
Mitchell's EV collision claims data shows record mild hybrid share
In its EV collision claims data, Mitchell reported Aug. 20 that mild hybrids made up 5.83% of U.S. repairable claims in the second quarter, a record high, up 26% from a year earlier, while battery electric vehicles made up 3.32%, a share Mitchell described as unchanged. The report also put the U.S. gap in average repairable severity between battery electric and internal combustion vehicles at a record low of $729, according to Mitchell.
California led all states, with EVs making up 7.57% of its registered light-duty vehicles, or 2,391,641 vehicles, and the state was home to about 31% of the nation's registered light-duty EVs, according to the Alliance.
The next highest were the District of Columbia at 5.29%, Washington at 4.41%, Nevada at 4.22%, Hawaii at 4.05%, Colorado at 3.95%, Oregon at 3.64%, Vermont at 3.54%, New Jersey at 3.5%, and Massachusetts at 3.19%. Mississippi (0.36%) and North Dakota (0.38%) had the lowest shares.
Hybrids gain share of new-vehicle sales
Hybrids reached 22.2% of new light-duty sales in the second quarter, up 4.9 percentage points from 17.3% a year earlier, and gas and diesel vehicles fell 3.3 points to 69.9% from 73.2%, according to the Alliance's news release.
The report describes its hybrid category as mild and strong hybrids. Hyundai reported second-quarter hybrid sales up 71%, according to its sales release. Second-quarter results from the major automakers also pointed to hybrid models driving gains at several brands.
