From doing donuts in a Mustang Mach-E to interviewing kids on electric school buses, I’ve seen the promise of a cleaner future. Without the $7,500 credit, the road ahead looks a lot bumpier. Here’s how we can stay the course.
The end of the $7,500 federal electric car tax credit today (Sept. 30) arrives with strong emotions from many people. Whether it’s the defeated lawmakers and clean energy advocates who worked tirelessly to push the legislation through, or—on the other end of the spectrum—relieved rural car dealerships that have struggled to sell EVs, and are hoping they’ll now be gone for good.
For me, my career switch to journalism coincided with the passing of the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022, which introduced the credit. EVs were my first beat, and what a thrill it was to cover the palpable excitement across the country. That year, Ford boldly electrified the Ford F-150 pickup, a classic symbol of American manufacturing might, now with faster acceleration but no V8 engine to rev. Amazon’s first Rivian delivery vans hit the road with funky headlights, and Sony and Honda joined forces in an unusual partnership to develop an EV in which you could watch movies and play video games.
I was spending my weekends driving the $130,000 Mercedes AMG EV, interviewing kids in rural New York state about their electric school bus, and doing donuts in a Ford Mustang Mach-E in a helmet and harness. It was a brave new world—but it didn’t last.Despite My Misgivings, the EV Tax Credit Was a Win
To be honest, EV tech was probably not ready for the hype, and that’s why, over the last few years, the cracks started to show. I had my own concerns about range, particularly in the cold Chicago weather where I lived. Living in a rented apartment, I had limited access to charging options. As I attended car shows and got drinks with auto executives, I privately felt the whole industry was catering to wealthy, single-family homeowners while ignoring large swaths of the population like me, whose lifestyles made buying and operating an EV downright difficult.
Still, the EV tax credit was a powerful tool—and it worked. (And no, not just wealthy people cashed in on the credit, because it had buyer income caps. And while we’re in parentheses, let’s not forget there are many oil and gas subsidies that are more costly to taxpayers than the EV credit.)
There are no articles I could write that could replace the first-hand experience of zipping down a highway in a swanky electric car with ultra-fast acceleration, a near-silent cabin, and a steering wheel that turns like butter.
