EV sales in February have risen, with early data suggesting strong growth over a slow January. New data from the Electric Vehicle Council shows that 3,419 EVs were sold by Tesla and Polestar in the month, with the Tesla Model Y leading the pack with 2,791 cars sold in February 2026.
Looking at collective year-to-date (YTD) sales for both Tesla and Polestar brands are 61% higher in 2026 than the same period in 2025.
That’s partially driven by the lower Tesla Model Y sales in the first two months of 2025 as the company transitioned to the new Model Y, with deliveries of the new model officially starting in May 2025.
The latest figures show a rise in sales of two of the more iconic EV-only brands in the market, but given the number of new makes and models, the shift towards those brands means a reduction in both Tesla and Polestar sales as a percentage of the total market.
This data also comes only a month after January 2026, when EV sales declined compared to December 2025, with the overall EV market seeing over 7,400 sales.
The Model 3 saw a big rise too, with 483 units sold, making it an over twofold increase over the previous month.
Other brand reported in the sales from EVC was Polestar, which recorded 145 sales during the month. Its sales were led by Polestar 4, which sold 97 units, outdoing the Polestar 2, which got 45 sales in February.
The Polestar 3 had a slow month, with just 3 units sold, likely due to increased competition from models like the Zeekr 7X.
Tesla’s sales in February appear to be on the rise as the company gears up for a year with a huge amount of competition landing in the market.
BYD, for example, has had a blistering start to 2025 with Sealion 7 being a bit of a hit amongst family electric SUV buyers. We will confirm the sales once the sales data comes through FCAI’s vFacts later this week.
Having said that, Tesla does appear to have a major advantage over almost any brand and that’s in its Full-Self-Driving (FSD) software. That’s soon to be only available via a $149/month subscription.
Would that be enough to build awareness around the brand’s focus on tech and autonomy for the rest of 2026? Time will tell, but for now, almost 2,800 sales of the Model Y in February, very likely puts it back up on the pole for best-selling EV for February.
Full market uptick is likely to be seen in the coming days when we receive FCAI’s data on how other brands performed during the month.
With early data showcasing a solid increase over the previous month, we expect it to be a month of around 9% of vehicles sold in the month to be battery electric cars.
Riz is the founder of carloop based in Melbourne, specialising in Australian EV data, insight reports and trends. He is a mechanical engineer who spent the first 7 years of his career building transport infrastructure before starting carloop. He has a passion for cars, particularly EVs and wants to help reduce transport emissions in Australia. He currently drives a red Tesla Model 3.