Seems much too early to draw any conclusions. Lots of sales that would have happened in October (and probably the next couple months as well) were shifted to September to take advantage of the credit. Also:
> Dealership managers told the Daily Mail they spent September in overdrive, clearing out every electric vehicle they could before the credit expired.
> Simply put, automakers didn't have electric vehicles on lots to sell.
This is not a trustworthy source, but even they are undermining their own headline.
> Tax credit was a huge driver for high income earner
Probably more for the low end of the electric car market (which is still middle income plus, but not really high income), as tax credits are more impactful the lower your income is (though that reverses for credits that arent refundable at the point when your total tax liability before the credit is less than the credit amount.)
A bigger factor for the high end is probably that electric cars lost their status signaling function.
This is silly and then I saw the domain name. September was the best month in history for EV sales (especially leases which had no income restrictions on the tax credit) and this is because most people moved their purchase up earlier than they wanted to so they can get the credit.
Of COURSE, October will be basically 0 sales. Who would have bought 15 days after the $7500 credit disappeared vs before?
You're going to see depressed purchases for a few months because of the mad rush to hit September 30. This is expected, we'll probably see the moved up purchases flush out of the system by Feb or so.
No surprise. Like the article says, the tax credit ended for them. Anyone considering buying an electric car already rushed to get one before the credit ended. That overhang will be there for a while.
Sales will probably modestly recover, but not to the point they were at with the credit in place for quite a while. Electric cars are expensive, and still have some unique limitations. Eventually they'll overtake ICE vehicles as those limitations are mitigated.
> Dealership managers told the Daily Mail they spent September in overdrive, clearing out every electric vehicle they could before the credit expired.
> Simply put, automakers didn't have electric vehicles on lots to sell.
This is not a trustworthy source, but even they are undermining their own headline.