The EV Tax Credit is OFFICALLY dead. What’s next for electric cars in America?
This week, I’ve been reviewing the 2025 refresh Kia EV6, and then news just dropped today that the EV tax credit is officially dead. [Music] So, what we’re going to do is we’re going to go on a little stroll with the Kia EV6. Wait for my full review cuz I will get a review up on it this week. The time of this recording, it is actually July 4th, Independence Day. Some people out there are celebrating the death of the EV tax credit, but uh we’re going to collect our thoughts, start driving this, and talk about the future of EVs here in America. September 30th is DDay, the day that the EV tax credit officially dies in the United States. It has been passed through the US House of Representatives by a narrow margin, but it still needs to be signed by the president in order to officially be dead, which is going to happen after, you know, the Fourth of July break that we’re on right now. Happy 4th of July if you’re watching this over the Fourth of July weekend. We have the rest of July. We have the Oh my gosh, that lightning bolt was huge. July, August, September to use a tax credit. Sales for EVs are going to skyrocket right now for the next three months. All right, for I guess you could say third quarter. We just finished the second quarter um of car sales here in the United States. Uh, and you had some cars that were up, some EVs that were up, like you had the Equinox EV that is up. You have Honda’s EVs, which are up, which is a prologue and ZDX, even though Honda’s losing a lot of money on those vehicles. But if you look at Ford’s F-150 Lightning, that’s in the tank. You look at the Mach E and the tank, the best EVs, in my opinion out there on the market come from Hyundai and Kia. They’re in the tank. The EV9 sales are terrible. The EV6 sales, which I’m driving right now, and it’s just refreshed, not good. You look at Hyundai Ionic 5, my favorite EV. Uh, well, I should say mass market EV. I’ll say that. Favorite mass market EV, Ionic 5. I mean, Hyundai’s even reducing production because of lack of demand for their EVs throughout the world. All right. Now, luckily for Hyundai, they they created this new Meta plant in Georgia, and they were going to first build only EVs there, but they are flexible, and they’re like, “Okay, well, uh, this EV situation that we’re currently in, and this is the great thing about EVs, I can even in wet situations, I can have no problem accelerating in complete silence, and it’s just so fast.” Anyways, this is not the GT. This not the EV6 GT. I might be in a GT line. That tells you how much I I know about this. I’ve been driving it quite a bit. Uh, it just says EV. Yeah, it is a It’s a GT line. This thing stickers at $60,000. 60,740. When I started reviewing these, they were under 55,000 just a few years ago. But, you know, I know I know Kia is making some EVs at that Meta plant right now, like the EV9 for example. I’ll have to double check with this car. I don’t want to like be reading that too much while I’m driving. U but I wouldn’t be surprised if this was made in the United States now, but yeah, the prices keep going up regardless of the, you know, the the tariff situation. But I’ve seen the Koreans have been over in Korea really cutting back on EV production. There’s a big EV fire in one of the apartment uh building or condo uh what do you call it? Parking structures. Was it like a year ago in South Korea? And like everyone seemed to be like completely scared of EVs at that point. And there’s no demand in Korea for these EVs. There’s very little demand in the United States for them. Uh for the average consumer, if you want an EV, great. you’ll still be able to buy them. All right. So, what is this going to do to EVs going forward uh stateside anyways? Well, their sales are going to plummet. EVs will continue to evolve, especially in China. China has all the infrastructure for EVs. They have all the battery min minerals. They mine all the rare earths to make electric motors. China has its own e ecosystem for EVs and EV production and EV minerals and EV materials. So, it makes sense for these vehicles to continue to evolve in China. I feel like in its own ecosystem and the United States now that the EV tax credit is dead as well as these companies or the car companies are not going to be fined by the government anymore for not meeting a fuel economy standards. That’s something also that’s going into this bill as being in effect I maybe now but for sure the for the EV end of thing September 30th. All right. So car manufacturers can make whatever car that they want essentially at this point due to customer demand, not what the government deems is eco-friendly. And that has its own issues and I’m not going to tackle that too much today. All right? I’m just going to talk about the viability of EVs going forward. this vehicle at $60,000 and a tax credit free uh or zero tax credit EV reality that we’re heading into makes zero sense. Absolutely zero sense. I like this car. I enjoy driving it. The headroom’s really limited. Like my head, if I had any longer of a torso, I wouldn’t be able to fit in this vehicle. In some ways, it feels uh way smaller than it should. And that’s why I like the Ionic 5 better. It feels way more roomy to me. Anyways, without the tax credit, this vehicle and any other EV that’s not dirt cheap is dead. I have a a deposit on the Slate pickup truck EV and I kind of want to go the other way to be honest. Um because I want to drive into the storm. I might have to yell, but I kind of want to drive into the storm. Um but the slate pickup truck with the EV tax credit was under $20,000. That’s what they were hoping for. Who knows? By the time it came out, it could they could have, you know what, swept the rug out from under us. Is that the right term? Uh when you know they do the bait and switch what the Cybert truck did. Oh, they’re like, “Oh yeah, Cybertruck is coming out next year.” And it it took like three more years to come out and the entry level like the entry level price went from 40k to like 80K. You guys know the whole Cybertruck deal that could be happening with Slate. Wow, this storm is really ugly looking. I have like a pretty um defined wall cloud it looks like. Um which is typically not normal here in Florida, but the weather right now this week has been absolutely weird. Um like highs of around 77° and raining and it’s the dead of summer. The dead heat of summer should be here and it’s just been cloudy and raining and there is no like far there’s no hurricanes going on. There’s none of that. So, it’s just like really weird weather. I’ve never seen it before like this in Florida. You guys might be saying climate change and that’s why we need to be driving EVs. I’m not going to get into that. And you know, weather is always changing. It’s always weird. But I’m going to have to cancel my slate reservation. Even though they just sent me a cute little thing in the mail, but it’s that cute little thing in the mail cost them 25 cents and they still have my $50 reservation. So, um, anyways, I’m going to cancel that because I mean, I can get a Ford Maverick Hybrid in my area for like, uh, like gosh, what was it? $26,000 that I saw, which is going to be a more practical truck for my needs. Yes, it has more maintenance. I get that. But, I mean, I love hybrids and it gets 40 miles per gallon. It’s efficient. It’s utilitarian. The Slate would have been amazing if the Slate came out four years ago. It could have been really, really something special. And so, we’re getting into the rain now. I do have auto wipers here in the Kia EV6 GT line. It’s quite fantastic. All right. Um, so what what’s going to have to change with EVs if they’re going to succeed in the United States now that the EV tax credit is ending September 30th? All right. So, there’s going to be a huge flash of sales in the near term. After that, all the EV sales are going to uh plummet, including Tesla. All right. Um that’s not a surprise. All right. An extra 7,500 bucks, every EV is going to cost extra than it does right now because regardless of what EV you buy right now, as long as you lease it, you get the EV tax credit. All right. Well, that’s going away. So, how will EVs go forward? Well, the cost has to come down. This car, like I said, $60,000, it will not. And And I looked at Kia EV6s in my area. Most of them are the wind, which I believe is the base trim. There’s like Oh, another big lightning strike. They’re going to have to keep making cheaper and cheaper cheaper EVs. This thing is essentially a luxury vehicle. I’ve heated and ventilated seats. Uh I have a 360 camera in here. I have a head-up display. like uh what was that? Was that the Jeep that sounded like that? That was ridiculous. Um nice FJ Cruiser there. I’m just so distracted right now. In order for EVs to make sense state side, I think going forward they’re going to have to cost about $30,000 MSRP and they’re going to have to be more focused on city. All right. Currently, EVs right now, they’ve been progressing better range, better efficiency. That’s all great and that will keep improving. Um, but the the issue is in the United States and in many other places, but mainly states side is like our infrastructure is bad for EVs. I have to drive about 15 minutes from my new house to get to a supercharger station, which this has Knack. So, it has kind of evolved into this more just a better EV than when this vehicle launched. still has a 800volt system, but I I don’t even know if there are any 800vt systems from Tesla that are superchargers. So, it’s kind of this vehicle is just like evolving with the the market demands despite it kind of going back to, you know, a 400vt charging system. You guys will tell me in the comments if there are any 800vt Tesla Knack charging stations in the in the United States. Sorry. So, we need cheaper EVs. We need EVs. I think 200 miles of range is plenty range. EVs to me are a perfect city vehicle. I have instant power and torque. Gosh. Um, which is great for accelerating from a stoplight, getting around traffic. Watch my Ionic 5N review. That vehicle was the best vehicle I’ve ever driven in town. Simple as that. uh for slaying traffic especially. So they need to be cheaper. They they don’t need to have all this range. They just need to be very efficient. And they need to they don’t need to charge that fast. And I don’t think slapping 800 volt on everything is the answer right now unless it gets cheaper over time. But like no one needs to be fast charging their EVs right now. Okay. You might be saying, “Kirk, that’s ridiculous. I drive my EV 20,000 mi a year. I fast charge a lot. That’s great. But like public energy is very expensive. If you’re if you go to a charging station, especially in like California, the energy costs are astronomical. All right? So, you’re better off driving a 50 mile per gallon hybrid with a lower price of entry, assuming you know you didn’t get a crazy lease deal, which most people are now. That’s not going to happen. Or you can’t get crazy lease. you’re going to get big incentives from manufacturers to lease these cars, but not from the government. And that’s a big chunk of it. So, like I just want EVs to get more basic, more affordable, and focus on what they’re good at, which is being a really, really good city vehicle. Like the new Leaf, honestly, the new Nissan Leaf to me has the potential to be the perfect EV. Fantastic in town. tiny overhangs. Really, really compact package. Still fairly roomy on the inside. They’re just keeping it simple. Front motor only. All right. We don’t need these dual motor setups that do 0 to 60 in 3 seconds. We don’t need that to be the average. I know Toyota’s kind of going that way with the the refreshed BZs. We don’t really need that. All right. We need EVs to be lighter. That’s another thing. EVs going forward, yes, they need to be more affordable, but they also need to be a lot lighter. Everyone says, “Oh, yeah, well, not everyone, but if you go to like inside EVs or electric, they say, you know, yes, they’re better for the environment, which is I’m not going to go down that route because you can find evidence on both sides that that hybrids are better than uh EVs uh force CO2 emissions, and EVs are better in some things, but you still have all these minerals. So, like these things weigh so much because of the batteries and all the minerals that are in this vehicle, all the materials packed into this. All right. I would rather have a lightweight EV and then you don’t need all the extra power. Um, and it would be more efficient. So, like something around 40 to 50 kilowatt hours, 200 miles of range, which is overkill for city driving. you know, good level two charging at home. You know, 11 kilowatts plus would be great. I think the new Kia, sorry, the new Kia, the new Nissan Leaf could absolutely be fine in an in this new era without EV tax credits. This Kia EV6 could could be destroyed. Now, Kia has the new EV3 coming out. I don’t know if it’s coming out in America. I know the EV4 is, which is this ugly looking sedan. That’s not going to sell well. That’s going to be a complete flop. It needs to be acute, functional in terms of space. Uh, City EV, like the new Leaf is, and I think the EV3 could absolutely do great at that if it launches in America, as long as they get the prices down. The rain’s getting too loud. Let me know what you guys think EVs need to evolve into in theu United States. Do we need more LFP batteries? All right. Do we need to get rid of the the cobalt situation, which is a very gray moral issue of how a cobalt is sourced? Do we need to use uh sodium batteries, which are going to be, you know, heavier but far cheaper to produce? And maybe that’s what we need. We have lots of sodium in the United States. We don’t have a lot of lithium or we’re not extracting a lot of that lithium right now and we don’t have a lot of the rare earth metals or or either that or we’re not extracting them right now as I’m hydroplaning. What’s the future? Different battery chemistry to make these things cheaper. I don’t know. I you would think so. All right. You might be saying, Kirk, solid state batteries is the future of EVs. And until we have solid state batteries in the United States, you know, EVs are going to be an afterthought compared to markets like China. That’s a possibility. All right. But you also have to keep in mind a solid state battery is not exclusive to an EV. You put something like that into a a Prius or a Camry and we’re talking crazy levels of either plug-in hybrid range or crazy improvements in hybrid range, which then is also going to make ice cars better. So, it’s we’re in we’re in this weird time. EVs are definitely going to fall off a cliff in terms of sales. All right, I almost took a right there. I would have fallen off a cliff and I really have no idea where I’m at. I’ve never been in this area. All right, so we’re just kind of exploring. There’s a dump truck right right here. Um, the infrastructure will get better with Ayana, but how how much these infrastructures are going to be funded now by the government is is very questionable. With this new bill that’s passed that kills the EV tax credit, the manufacturers are still going to get some benefit here uh for for building EVs. All right. And battery plants. I believe that uh is still being reduced on how much tax credit these companies are getting to build these battery factories, but um there it’s still going to be intact from about 2032 from what I read this morning. All right. So, we still have some uh EV incentives from the government for the companies building beevs, but from the consumer end, as I’m if I wish you guys could see the hydroplaning that’s going on the other side, it’s pretty cool. But from the consumer end, EVs are, you know, the cheap leases on an EV just is not gonna it’s going to be a lot harder for manufacturers to make that happen without the help of the government at this point. All right. I think a $20,000 EV with 150 200 miles of range, uh, 200 horsepower is all you need. frontwheel drive, good practicality, and I love the fact of, you know, EVs have very little of maintenance. All right. And I would love to see more EVs on the market that are not $60,000 and are focused more around 20 to $30,000. It’s the only way they survive in my opinion in the United States in the coming years. All right, until solid state batteries of some miracle uh comes out. I have no idea where I’m at. Um, that’s a golf course. Go figure. There’s a a random golf course here in in Florida as I’m lost right now. But that’s okay. All right. I have enough range. I don’t have range anxiety right now. I have uh 43% charge. So I have 100. It says 12. Hit that pothole with these massive 20 21 in wheels. Whatever this thing has. Um but yeah, I have enough range to get back. But uh I’m really just on pothole central. So I’m going to turn this ship around. something that EVs can’t simply do right now figuratively speaking in the market. All right, Toyota has all these EVs coming out. Honda has all these zero series EVs coming out. EV tax credit is dead. You have a Filela that hasn’t even launched yet. I just saw that they they’ve lost tons of billions of dollars. Maybe is it billions or maybe it’s mega mega millions. Anyways, some absurd amount of money and they haven’t even launched a vehicle yet. Um, man, this road’s really bad. So, all these manufacturers pouring money into EVs makes no sense at this point. All right, they’re not going to be uh assisted selling these vehicles by the government anymore. Many states have been ending their EV tax credits. And there’s a canal here. All right. Um, and the road is no longer paved. So, wow. Um, we don’t want to go we don’t want to go in there. Luckily, I think I still have navigation in the sticks to take make my way out. Uh, we’re in Gator and Bear Country right now here in Florida. All right, I’ll pin where I’m at on the map. All right, let’s see if I can find where I’m at on the map first of all by Hideout Golf Club. That lets you know that was a nice that was a nice thunder strike. Uh, but hideout golf club that lets you know how lost I am right now when the golf club is literally a secret hideout. Um, Stokes. All right, guys. I could ramble about this all day. Um, but without having a real person here to debang ideas off of, it’s uh it’s time to kill this this conversation just as the EV tax credit gets killed September 30th. Let me know in the comments how pissed are you? How happy are you? There’s people on both sides. I I don’t really care at this point. I just like talking about how it how how it’s going to impact EVs going forward states side. All right. It does suck. If you’re in the market to buy EV, just go buy one right now. The time is now. You have like 80 days. 80 days to get uh that EV tax credit and before the prices skyrocket for a lease and purchase for an EV. All right, have a good day, guys. Um and I cannot wait to see you guys feast in the comment section. Take care and peace out.
#ev #taxcredit #tesla
It’s over for the Tax Credit for #electric cars in America. Here’s what’s going to happen to EV development in the USA.
sources:
https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/us-electric-vehicle-tax-breaks-will-expire-sept-30-2025-07-03/
https://www.autonews.com/ev/an-budget-bill-passage-evs-0703/
“It is the end of the line for U.S. electric vehicle tax credits.
Sweeping tax and budget legislation approved by Congress on Thursday means $7,500 tax credits for buying or leasing new electric vehicles will end on September 30, as well as a $4,000 used EV credit, that have helped juice green vehicle sales in recent years.” Reuters
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