GM overtakes Ford for No. 2 spot in EV sales behind Tesla

General Motors relied heavily on its Chevrolet Bolt to sell 20,670 electric vehicles in the first quarter to overtake Ford, which sold only 10,866, for the second spot behind Tesla.

The Detroit-headquartered GM sold 19,700 of its top-selling EV, the Chevrolet Bolt hatchback and utility vehicle, after delivering only 358 Bolts in the same period last year.

GM, which also sold 968 Cadillac Lyriq electric SUVs and two GMC Hummer EV pickups during the period, enjoyed EV sales that were 44 times larger than in the same quarter a year ago.

Ford said it lost the second spot due to its decision to stop making the top-selling Mustang Mach-E electric SUV while it retooled a factory in Mexico to increase production.

According to Ford, they didn't build Mach-Es for seven weeks during the quarter, cutting into sales.

Ford was also forced to stop making the F-150 Lightning electric pickup in February after a battery caught fire during a pre-delivery quality check. Production resumed on March 13.

Still, Ford's EV sales rose 41 percent above last year's first quarter, the company said Tuesday.

Meanwhile, industry leader Tesla delivered over 161,000 vehicles in the US from January to March.

Volkswagen, which is in fourth place in US EV sales with 9,758 deliveries of the ID.4 hatchback, came close to knocking Ford down two notches.