Thanks, Ioniq 5: Hyundai Just Set A Blistering Sales Record
Published 14 hours ago
Joel was previously an editor at Autoblog for nearly a decade, covering cars from humble economy hatchbacks to high-end sports cars. He has extensive driving experience with plenty of track time, and even dabbles in motorcycling.
Joel has shared his experiences in the car world not just in text, but also on podcasts and web videos.
He enjoys learning about the nitty gritty technical details of vehicles, something that was bolstered with his education at McPherson College. The school, in addition to typical higher education topics, also has courses on automotive restoration.
While he enjoys spending time in high-end cars, the mainstream market is what he’s mostly interested in. He’s always excited when an automaker brings style and engagement in a vehicle that almost anyone could get into.
Hyundai has reason to be excited, it just had its best September of all time, following up on an amazing August. It sold 71,003 cars in the past month, an improvement of 14%. The quarter was its best-ever, too, with a total of 239,069 sales, an increase of 13%. Since the company didn’t specifically mention it, year-to-date sales must not have reached a record high, but they were still pretty great at 678,349 total, which topped last year by 11%. It also turned out to be one of the best quarters ever for the brand’s EVs, particularly the Ioniq 5, with only a couple of its combustion models coming close to matching the EVs’ sales increases. Let’s dig into the details.
The Ioniq 5 Topped The Charts
Hyundai’s EVs had a great third quarter. All of them combined had sales 153% higher this September compared to last September. Comparing quarters, they were up 100%, so a doubling of EV sales. The top performer of those models, though, was the Ioniq 5. It also saw a 152% increase compared to last September, going from 3,336 units to 8,408. It’s also having a great year overall with sales up 35% for the entire year up to now. It has sold 41,091 examples, which puts it ahead of Santa Cruz and Venue, and barely behind the Sonata.
The Ioniq 6 had a good September, which helped it to be basically even for the year compared with last year. The monthly sales were up by 36%, and its total for 2025 so farr is 9,132, a little more than 30 more than last year. Also, while it only went on sale this year, so there aren’t numbers for increases, the Ioniq 9 seems to be off to a strong start. The company has already sold 4,177 of them, and sales for it didn’t start until May of this year. We’re not sure the sales for Kona EVs, since they’re lumped in with the combustion Kona.
We’ll be very curious to see what happens with EV sales for the rest of the year. We would be shocked if the federal tax credit expiring at the end of September didn’t spur a big sales surge to get the incentive.
Santa Fe And Venue Also Did Great
The next bestsellers outside of Hyundai’s EVs were a pair of crossovers. The Santa Fe, which is the brand’s third best-selling model overall, was up by 28% for September, and 22% for the year so far. Total sales hit 102,160. The Venue, Hyundai’s smallest and most affordable model was way up for September with an increase of 77%, and a year-to-date increase of 20%. Total sales were 23,728, though, meaning it’s still one of the lowest-selling models.
Curiously, some of Hyundai’s staples have dipped. The Kona and Sonata were both down across month-over-month, quarter-over-quarter, and year-over-year numbers. The Sonata wasn’t far off for the year, down just 5% to 45,914 sales, but Kona, an affordable small crossover, was down 11% to 57,278. The Santa Cruz has also had a rough year, with its annual sales down 18% to 20,633.
Corvette Sales Have Slipped So Far Even The GMC Hummer Is Beating It
Published 10 hours ago
Chris joined CarBuzz in June 2025. He’s held positions at Ford and Motor1, and contributed to Autoblog, Car Throttle, Auto Trader, and many other motoring outlets during his 28-year career. Chris holds a BA in English from Western Michigan University and an AA in Journalism.
Growing up in the 1980s in the shadow of Detroit, Chris didn’t realize he was witnessing a turning point in automotive history. He just thought digital dashes and pop-up headlights were cool, and no car could ever be as awesome as KITT from Knight Rider. He also came from a car-crazy family, so when he graduated from college with English and Journalism degrees, he applied his communication talents to the wild world of cars.
Chris worked as a mechanic and auto detailer through college, and he was knee-deep in the car club scene when the first Fast and Furious film hit the big screen. Early comms jobs at Ford put him in the hot seat of high-horsepower Mustangs, but being a fan of all cars, he started writing on the side as an auto journalist.
As third-quarter sales figures roll in from automakers, we’re seeing some surprising trends. Electric vehicles from just about every automaker are up – way up in some cases – but that’s not really surprising given the rush to buy EVs ahead of the $7,500 tax credit expiring. We totally expected lower-priced EVs like the Chevrolet Equinox to do extremely well, but we didn’t expect to see that fervor spill over to the massive GMC Hummer EV.
Moreover, we didn’t expect to see the Chevrolet Corvette, America’s sports car with world-class supercar performance, suffering a notable sales drop. The pricey ZR1 and pricier ZR1X are all the talk right now, but the Stingray is still a legit bang-for-buck deal. It’s certainly not a mainstream vehicle, but the ‘Vette’s mid-year sales decline shows no sign of slowing down as we move into autumn.
GMC Hummer EV sales up? Corvette sales down? You probably see where we’re going with this.
GMC Hummer EV Outsells Chevrolet Corvette
The numbers are in, and we’re pretty sure this is the first time GMC’s monster EV clipped the Corvette’s wings. To be fair, the numbers are very close: 5,246 sales for the Hummer (including the truck and SUV) compared to 5,123 for the Corvette in the third quarter. The Corvette has been sliding most of the year, whereas the big Hummer has been stepping up. It’s not just a tax credit thing, either. GMC’s flagship vehicle was way up in the second quarter, before the fate was sealed on the EV tax credit.
By The Numbers:
| Vehicle | Q3 2025 | Q3 2024 | % Change | Q2 2025 | Q2 2024 | % Change | YTD 2025 | YTD 2024 | % Change |
| Corvette | 5,123 | 7,797 | -34.3% | 5,801 | 9,338 | -37.9% | 17,718 | 25,711 | -31.1% |
| Hummer EV | 5,246 | 4,305 | +21.9% | 4,508 | 2,929 | +53.9% | 13,233 | 8,902 | +48.7% |
Sadly, General Motors doesn’t break down sales numbers by specific trim levels, or at least, the company doesn’t publish such things. We’d be very interested to see the breakdown of Hummer EV 2X versus 3X sales, though neither is cheap. Once upon a time, GMC promised a version starting around $70,000. For 2025, the entry point is the 2X with a price tag of $99,045, including destination fees. The 3X jumps to $107,145, also including destination. It doesn’t matter if you get the truck or SUV – the starting prices are the same. For 2026, the prices go up by just $50 despite a minor refresh.
Meanwhile In Corvette Land…
It’s reasonable to think prospective Corvette buyers have postponed a purchase until the 2026 model year reaches dealerships. Engineers gave the car something we don’t often see – a notable mid-cycle Corvette refresh that removed the controversial “spine of buttons.” There’s still a clear separation between driver and passenger, but the buttons are relocated amid a revamped center console and new display screens. By new, we mean larger: a 14.0-inch screen for the driver, a 12.7-inch infotainment screen, and a new 6.6-inch aux screen on the far left.
It’s also possible buyers could be patiently (or perhaps impatiently) waiting for better ZR1 availability. Again, GM doesn’t publish sales breakdowns by trim, and we certainly don’t expect the $183,400 ZR1 to be a volume seller by any means. But it did have a very frustrating rollout for buyers this year; deliveries were delayed and as a result, very few 2025 ZR1s will exist.
With the tax credit now dead and automakers settling in for the new normal amid tariffs and general uncertainty about all kinds of things, it will be interesting to see how the final quarter of 2025 plays out. Stay tuned.
