This Halloween, the federal government is offering zero treats to electric vehicle buyers. And it’s produced a frightening result for EV advocates: Americans lurched back to buying traditional gas guzzlers.
EV sales are on track to face-plant to slightly less than 6 percent of new car sales in October, the first month after the Trump administration phased out the Biden-era $7,500 tax incentive. That’s less than half the rate from September, according to a report by research firm J.D. Power and data firm GlobalData that made full-month conclusions from earlier sales.
You’d have to go back to 2022 to find EV sales at that level. But analysts consoled that the figures aren’t as bad as they could have been and that they will probably get better.
“We’re going to still keep some momentum,” said Stephanie Valdez Streaty, an industry analyst at Cox Automotive, on a webinar Tuesday about EV sales.
