Next year, Toyota will have more EVs on sale in the United States than Ford

There was a time not that long ago where people like myself were criticizing Toyota for its lack of EVs. The company had an apparent hybrids-only strategy and the company would not deviate from that strategy regardless of the state of the world. In response to that criticism, the company quickly showed the world a bunch of EVs that it was working on, but we haven’t really heard that much since.

Except, we kinda have. In the background, Toyota has been working towards providing fully-electric offerings not just globally, but also in the United States. For the 2026 model year, at least at this point, Toyota Motor Company will be offering more BEVs for sale in the U.S. than the Ford Motor Company. Who could’ve predicted that?

For 2026, Ford is expected to have three EVs on sale. Those three vehicles are the Ford Mustang Mach-E (which received a heat pump for 2025 and a few other upgrades), the Ford F-150 Lightning (which also got the heat pump), and the E-Transit. There are allegedly some more EVs in the works, but we won’t see them until 2027 (2026 for the commercial van) based on Ford’s most recent public statements.

For 2026, Toyota will have the significantly updated bZ (which is the bZ4X renamed for the United States), the bZ Woodland (a platform mate of the Subaru Trailseeker), the return of the C-HR, an updated Lexus RZ with new hardware and a performance variant, and a new-generation Lexus ES that will be available for the first time as a completely battery-electric vehicle.

That’s five total electric vehicle offerings in the United States compared to Ford’s three. General Motors has even more than that right now.

But who would’ve expected Toyota to so quickly revamp its lineup and plan on sending so many battery electric models to the United States? Tariffs might ultimately change the timeline on some of these products — considering many of these models are assembled in Japan — but it’s still surprising that Ford has seemingly let the entire industry catch up.

Sure, Tesla was also the leader, and Nissan was one of the first companies to offer a BEV in the United States (and also squandered that lead), but Ford with the Mach-E and Lightning one-two punch were really on to something. The Lightning drives nicer than the GM BEV trucks, and in real-world testing that isn’t designed to make Fox News happy, range loss during towing isn’t that significant (though it’s not a small amount, either).

Ford’s Blue Oval City is supposed to be the centerpiece of Ford’s BEV transition, and I expected the company to be farther along than it is (regardless of who is president). But the company doesn’t seem to have any interested in building a 3-row BEV crossover with an Explorer badge on it (which is silly, in my opinion), and by 2027 there will be ever more offerings on sale to directly compete with what Ford is working on.

I haven’t driven any of these new Toyota EVs, and the first version of the bZ4X and RZ left a lot to be desired. But if the company managed to actually listen to feedback from idiots like me and kaizen’d its way into good products, I’ll gladly accept that I was wrong about Toyota’s EV intentions. For at least one of them, I’ll know soon enough.