How the United States left the global electric car race

You can forgive to think that electric cars may finally gain momentum in the United States.

After all, the sales of battery cars reached 1.2 million last year, more than five times the number only four years ago. The hybrid sales jumped with a three factor.

Cars with batteries formed 10 % of total sales in August – the highest new level, according to the S&P Global Mobility.

In updates for investors this week, General Motors, Ford, Tesla and other companies have informed standard sales during the past three months.

This was a bright point in wrestling in the industry with repercussions of high interest rates and buyers on the brink of the abyss on inflation, definitions and the broader economy.

But analysts say that the prosperity was the result of an outbreak of purchase before the end of a government subsidy that helped hit up to 7500 dollars (5,588 pounds) of the price. For some electric battery, hybrid components or fuel cells.

With this tax credit that has ended from the end of September, car makers expect the momentum to turn the opposite.

“It will be a vibrant industry, but it will be much smaller and smaller than we thought,” Ford CEO, Jim Farley, said at the Tuesday event.

Paul Jacobson, General Motors Financial Director, said at a conference last month, adding that the demand for EV will drop significantly, “adding that it will take some time to see how quickly buyers are.

Even with recent gains, the United States has emerged, the second largest car market in the world, as it is late in electric car sales compared to a lot of the rest of the world.

In the United Kingdom, for example, sales of electric and hybrid cars formed nearly 30 % of new sales last year, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), while in Europe, approximately one in five sales.

In China, the world’s largest car market, sales of these cars formed nearly half of the total sales last year, according to the International Intelligence Agency, and the majority is expected to become this year.

The seizure in some other countries, such as Norway and Nepal, is Akbar.

Electric vehicles (EVS) tend to calculate a smaller share of sales in Latin America, Africa and other parts of Asia – but there was an increase.

Analysts say that adoption in the United States has slowed through relatively weak government support to the sector, which limited the types of support, commercial programs and rules that helped industry in places such as China, the United Kingdom and Europe.

Former President Joe Biden pushed strongly to increase the seizure of the goal For electric cars to calculate half of all sales in the United States by 2030.

His administration has stressed the rules on emissions, increased demand through purchases for government fleets, paid car makers with loans and grants for EV investments, spent billions of billions of shipping stations and expanding tax credit of 7500 dollars as sweetest for buyers.

Supporters make these efforts partially as a competitive necessity, warning that without these American car makers will risk the loss of competitors from China and other countries.

But President Donald Trump, who recently described the climate change as a “deception function”, prompted the abolition of many of these measures, including $ 7,500 credit, on the pretext that they are paying people to buy cars they do not want.

He said this summer: “We say … you will not have to do all these cars.” A bill aimed at beating California rules, which will be Recycle gasoline sales only In the state by 2035. “You can make it, but it will be on the market, ruled by the market.”

Electric cars have become more affordable in the United States in recent years – but they still cost more than similar gasoline compounds.

Chinese car makers such as BYD, which have made quick steps in other markets thanks to the low prices, were closed from the United States, due to the high customs tariff targeting cars made in China, with the support of both Biden and Trump.

As of August, the average price of transactions for the electric car in the United States was more than $ 57,000, according to Kelley Blue Book, 16 % higher than the average of all cars.

The cost of the lowest Nissan Leaf, Nissan Leaf, is about $ 30,000 (22,000 pounds). In comparison, many models can be found for less than 20,000 pounds in the UK.

Analysts say what the following buyers do on how to determine car makers in the coming months, because they are not only competing with the end of tax credit but also to tariff for foreign cars and some of Trump’s car pieces this spring.

Hyundai said this week that she would compensate for tax credit by lowering the price for a group of Eioniq Evs. But Tesla said that the cost of monthly rents for some of its cars would rise.

Stephanie Brenley, assistant director of S& P Global Mobility, said that she does not expect to see many companies following the example of Hyundai, given the pressures of definitions.

She warned that some buyers may choose EVS anyway, “next year will be difficult,” noting that her company calls for approximately 2 % decrease in total car sales in 2026.

“It was difficult enough if all you had to deal with was a new tariff, but with a new tariff and an incentive, there are two effects.”

Car makers had already reduced their investments in electric cars.

The researchers say that the changes in Trump’s policy can reduce these investments more.

Catherine Yogsco, research analyst for the US Security Project

“The subsidies were initially a way to settle the stadium and now that the United States has disappeared with a lot of land to compensate.”

However, Mrs. Brenley said she was hesitant to declare the United States in an industry that still tests technology alternatives.

“Is (electrician) really the right thing?” She said. “The saying that we are behind us assumes this is the only and best solution, and I think it is a little early to say that.”