The credit that ended on September 30, 2025
A federal tax credit lets a taxpayer subtract money directly from what they owe the government. The New Clean Vehicle Credit let a buyer subtract up to 7,500 dollars off a new electric car, split into 2 halves of 3,750 dollars each, one for meeting a critical minerals requirement and one for a battery components requirement. The Internal Revenue Service states the credit is not available for any vehicle acquired after September 30, 2025. Most new cars had to list under 55,000 dollars to qualify, so at that price the credit was worth about 13.6% of what the buyer paid.
The credit also carried income limits, up to 300,000 dollars for a married couple filing jointly, 225,000 dollars for a head of household and 150,000 dollars for everyone else, and a separate price cap of 80,000 dollars for vans, sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks. None of those limits matter anymore, because there is no credit left to cap.
Buyers rushed before the deadline
Buyers rushed to close a deal before the credit disappeared. Cox Automotive counted 438,487 electric vehicles sold in the United States in the third quarter of 2025, 10.5% of every new vehicle sold that quarter and a record. That was 40.7% more than the second quarter of 2025 and 29.6% more than the third quarter of 2024.
Stephanie Valdez Streaty, director of industry insights at Cox Automotive, said this about what came next.
The training wheels are coming off. The federal tax credit was a key catalyst for EV adoption, and its expiration marks a pivotal moment.
Stephanie Valdez Streaty, director of industry insights at Cox Automotive. Source 4.
The month the credit disappeared
The Energy Information Administration counts battery electric vehicles at 12% of new light duty vehicle sales in September 2025, a record set the same month the credit disappeared. A year earlier, in the second quarter of 2025, that share was 7% of new light duty sales. By the second quarter of 2026 it had fallen to 6%, lower than where it started.
September 2025 is a single month, the record reached right before the credit expired. The 2 quarter figures are 3 month averages, so the 3 bars are not on the same time basis.
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| Second quarter 2025 | 7 |
| September 2025 | 12 |
| Second quarter 2026 | 6 |
The National Automobile Dealers Association counted the first full month with no credit at all. In October 2025 dealers sold just under 75,000 new battery electric vehicles, a 46.7% fall from September and a 23.8% fall from October 2024. Battery electric vehicles made up 5.9% of new vehicle sales that month. Manufacturers spent more of their own money to soften the fall. Average incentive spending on a battery electric vehicle reached 13,161 dollars in October, attributed to J.D. Power, 2,047 dollars more than in September.
What it looked like inside one automaker
Ford is the only automaker in the 5 sources with a model by model breakdown. Its Mustang Mach E fell 40.1% in the fourth quarter of 2025 against a year earlier, its F 150 Lightning fell 60.1%, and its electric delivery van, the E Transit, fell 82.6%.
Fourth quarter unit counts for 3 Ford electric models, reported by CleanTechnica from Ford sales figures. The full year total across all 3 models was 84,113 electric vehicles, close to the 2024 total, because most of the fall landed in the fourth quarter.
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| Mustang Mach E | 9,658 units in 2025 against 16,119 a year earlier |
| F 150 Lightning | 4,273 units in 2025 against 10,703 a year earlier |
| E Transit | 582 units in 2025 against 3,354 a year earlier |
Adding the 3 model totals together, Ford sold 84,113 electric vehicles across the full year 2025, close to its 2024 total, because most of the fall landed in the last 3 months of the year rather than spread across all 12.