The first full month of US electric vehicle sales data following the scrapping of federal subsidies sparked concerns of a U-turn in American clean car momentum, and a return to ever-growing reliance on fossil fuels for transportation. But continued robust sales of hybrid electric cars are offering hope to climate trackers that the US car fleet will continue to get steadily cleaner, despite the sharply diminished support for the EV sector in Washington, D.C. With sales of new plug-in electric vehicles likely to remain soft over the near term now that the $7,500 tax credit per car has been scrapped, more downbeat news from the broader US EV sector is likely to dominate industry sentiment.
Yet sustained demand for hybrid electric cars – many of which were not eligible for the tax credit in the first place – reveals that US car buyers remain interested in low-emitting transport options, even without federal support.
At first glance, the sales numbers for October painted a picture of an EV sector in deep turmoil, and that without hefty government support there is only limited interest in going electric.
Sales of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) were just under 75,000 units, which was 47 per cent below September’s total and the lowest monthly sales number since January 2023, data from Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) shows.
Sales of plug-in hybrid EVs (PHEVs) dropped by 19 per cent from the month before, and were also at close to three-year lows.
However, a wider view of the sales data for both sets of cars reveals that there was a steep run-up in purchases of both BEVs and PHEVs ahead of the subsidy cuts, which in turn helped accentuate the drop off seen since.
Combined sales of BEVs and PHEVs over the first 10 months of the year also hit a record of 1.3 million units, which marks a 4 per cent rise from the same period in 2022. Of that total, 1.075 million were BEVs, which marks an 8 per cent rise from January to October of 2024 and a new high, while 234,336 were PHEVs, which is the second highest tally for that period on record.
Even so, the wiping out of the tax credit leaves car dealers with an enduring conundrum over how to plug the subsidy gap, and overcome any perceived increase in EV prices compared to what buyers were faced with prior to October.
HYBRID HOPES
In contrast with the steep falls in BEV and PHEV sales last month, purchases of hybrid electrics posted a 6 per cent climb in October from the month before, to 159,431 units.
That was the highest monthly HEV sales total since July, and brought the January to October HEV sales total to a record 1.64 million units. That year-to-date sum was 25 per cent greater than sales of all plug-in electric vehicles so far in 2025, and so helped cement HEVs as the largest-selling part of the EV ecosystem, despite the faster growth in BEV sales since 2019.
Updated EV sales data for the month of November is due within the next week or so, and will likely reveal continued weakness in new plug-in EV purchases, as would-be buyers and dealers struggle to bridge the price gap.
Those weak sales totals could in turn be interpreted as a further shrinking in the US EV market and a sign that the clean car sector is unable to compete without federal aid.
But a truer gauge of US clean car demand will be in the purchase volumes of hybrid electrics, which remain closely priced compared to combustion engine cars and offer cost-conscious buyers a more affordable way to cut fuel reliance.
The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters.
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(Reporting by Gavin Maguire; Editing by Sonali Paul)
