(Credit: Emily Forlini)
The end of the $7,500 federal electric car tax credit today (Sept. 30) arrives with strong emotions from many people. Whether it’s the defeated lawmakers and clean energy advocates who worked tirelessly to push the legislation through, or—on the other end of the spectrum—relieved rural car dealerships that have struggled to sell EVs, and are hoping they’ll now be gone for good.
For me, my career switch to journalism coincided with the passing of the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022, which introduced the credit. EVs were my first beat, and what a thrill it was to cover the palpable excitement across the country. That year, Ford boldly electrified the Ford F-150 pickup, a classic symbol of American manufacturing might, now with faster acceleration but no V8 engine to rev. Amazon’s first Rivian delivery vans hit the road with funky headlights, and Sony and Honda joined forces in an unusual partnership to develop an EV in which you could watch movies and play video games.
I was spending my weekends driving the $130,000 Mercedes AMG EV, interviewing kids in rural New York state about their electric school bus, and doing donuts in a Ford Mustang Mach-E in a helmet and harness. It was a brave new world—but it didn't last.
Despite My Misgivings, the EV Tax Credit Was a Win
To be honest, EV tech was probably not ready for the hype, and that’s why, over the last few years, the cracks started to show. I had my own concerns about range, particularly in the cold Chicago weather where I lived. Living in a rented apartment, I had limited access to charging options. As I attended car shows and got drinks with auto executives, I privately felt the whole industry was catering to wealthy, single-family homeowners while ignoring large swaths of the population like me, whose lifestyles made buying and operating an EV downright difficult.
Still, the EV tax credit was a powerful tool—and it worked. (And no, not just wealthy people cashed in on the credit, because it had buyer income caps. And while we're in parentheses, let's not forget there are many oil and gas subsidies that are more costly to taxpayers than the EV credit.)
There are no articles I could write that could replace the first-hand experience of zipping down a highway in a swanky electric car with ultra-fast acceleration, a near-silent cabin, and a steering wheel that turns like butter. They are clearly an upgrade, but you have to experience it for yourself. Now, many people have, in large part, thanks to the credit. August 2025 saw record EV sales, at 10% of new cars sold, a massive jump from 3.2% in 2021.
In my view, the tax credit was supposed to help get people to love EVs, while in the background, prices would naturally come down and range would go up, making them more appealing on their own—no federal assistance necessary. The range did go up, so that part is working.
But the EV prices remain stubbornly high. It’s hard to win an argument with an EV skeptic, or a presidential administration hellbent on destroying a so-called "EV mandate," with such a high up-front purchasing price. (The high-profile articles of rare EV fires also don’t help, but that would require a whole other op-ed.)
To Solve EV Adoption, We Need to Solve Battery Tech
Why do EVs cost so much? The battery. Why do we charge EVs? Their batteries. When you talk about anything related to EVs, it's all about the battery. Otherwise, they are mostly the same as any other car, with four wheels and a steering wheel (OK, and also some weird Elon Musk goodies, if you have a Tesla).
There have been rumors of lithium prices coming down and cheaper models hitting dealerships, but that's not what I see. My list of EVs under $40,000 got smaller every year after I first wrote it in 2022. Batteries remained too expensive, and car companies got sick of bleeding money, leading to the end of affordable models like the Chevy Bolt. They want a sustainable, more profitable business model. Who can blame them?
The US hasn't yet solved the battery affordability problem, and has watched helplessly as China has. Our biggest rival has become an automotive powerhouse over the past few years, with mega-brands like BYD, which makes the $9,700 Seagull and the $16,000 Dolphin with a 260-mile range, as Electrek reports. No EV for sale in the US comes close to that low price.
This is why Ford CEO Jim Farley called China’s EV business “humbling.” The country’s manufacturing prowess, EV government subsidies, and worldwide control of the mines that crank out lithium and other critical battery minerals are almost impossible to compete with.
The End of the Credit Should Bring a Focus on Research
So, where does this leave us when the EV tax credit ends on the 30th? Will we be standing in a black void, condemned to a life of inhaling gas exhaust and reminiscing on the good old days when we invented the Model T? Adoption will likely slow, but not stop, as car companies kill less popular models, like the Acura ZDX and Nissan Ariya, both of which bit the dust this month, and don't replace them with new models.
Some states will maintain their own clean vehicle credits, which help offset the loss of the federal one to a smaller degree. The real legacy of the EV push will be the public's increasing openness to hybrids and plug-in hybrids, and automakers offering more of them, which we are certainly seeing.
It’s possible the next administration will institute another tax credit to get adoption back on track, but only more affordable, powerful batteries can cement EVs as a permanent fixture in America. We need a long-term tech solution.
A breakthrough battery that's cheaper, lighter, and more powerful would change the world, not just EVs. It would revolutionize warfare, home energy, and even cell phones. Batteries are the future of energy independence, and even Elon Musk knows it—even if he seems more interested in autonomous driving software than making new cars these days.
I’ve reported on incredible companies that received grants from the Biden Administration to develop futuristic silicon and lithium-sulfur batteries, which have double the range, with less weight, and use more abundant elements than lithium. I strongly believe we’ll see it in the market in about 7 years; they’re already testing with major automakers behind the scenes, but passing safety standards and getting to dealers is a long process. When they do arrive, they won't be cheap, like all new tech.
The biggest risk of the slowing EV momentum we face is the devaluation of this research and development. If that happens, it might become the real reason electric cars don't replace gas-powered cars in our lifetimes—not the end of the federal tax credit. “To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete,” as futurist Buckminster Fuller put it. It won't be easy, to say the least.
But that's a problem for another day. (Many days, really.) For now, let’s pour one out for the $7,500 federal EV tax credit in its final hours. You weren’t here for a long time, but it was a good time.