President Donald Trump has made no secret of his disdain for electric vehicles and is slamming the brakes on government incentives to get them into more driveways.
He’s been working to undo policies that promote clean technologies while increasing support for coal, oil, and natural gas. In particular, Trump has been working to reverse or halt programs under the Inflation Reduction Act, the single largest US government investment to deal with climate change, signed into law by his predecessor, President Joe Biden.
Under Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, the $7,500 federal tax credit for buying a new electric car, along with a $4,000 credit for used EVs and $40,000 for commercial EVs, is set to expire on September 30.
Those moves may have contributed to Trump’s messy split with Elon Musk, CEO of electric carmaker Tesla and former head of the Department of Government Efficiency.
“Elon was ‘wearing thin,’ I asked him to leave, I took away his EV Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!” Trump posted on Truth Social in June.
More than 90 percent of new cars sold in the US are still gasoline-powered, and EV sales have recently seen a slowdown in the US following a years-long growth spurt. The looming rollback of federal incentives, along with inflation concerns, rising manufacturing costs from tariffs, and increasing competition over raw materials, have led carmakers to cut back on many of the enticements that have made electric cars a better buy.
Many car dealers have also been struggling to move EVs off their lots as customers remain worried about charging infrastructure and cost.
But despite all of these challenges, the popularity of EVs in the US is still growing, and some US automakers remain committed to running on electrons. And in other countries, EVs are racing ahead. More than half of new cars sold in China are electric or hybrids, backed by generous government subsidies. People clearly are willing to drive EVs — at the right price.
Earlier this month, Ford announced that it was pouring $5 billion into building a new EV platform — a chassis and drivetrain for a suite of electric vehicles — in Louisville, Kentucky. The first vehicle rolling off the line will be a four-door pickup truck priced around $30,000. That would put it in line with some of the cheapest pickup trucks on the market today, electric or gasoline. And Ford aims to start deliveries in 2027, less than two years from now.
It’s an ambitious, risky bet in a volatile economy, but it’s a sign that, while electric vehicles may be slowing down in the US, automakers think they aren’t stopping and could accelerate again. It’s also good news for anyone concerned about rising greenhouse gas emissions, since transportation is one of the largest emitters of carbon dioxide in the world.
Why Ford is betting big on a small price tag
This isn’t Ford’s first run at an electric pickup truck. In 2021, Ford debuted the F-150 Lightning, the fully electric version of its iconic Ford F-150, the best-selling pickup truck in the US for almost five decades. At times, Ford was selling 100 conventional F-150s per hour, so it made a lot of sense that Ford would want to build on that successful platform to go electric.
At the time, I argued that the Ford F-150 Lightning was not the EV America was waiting for. It was too expensive to be the mass market truck that would tip American drivers away from gasoline and toward batteries. The base model Lightning launched at close to $40,000, and the current base model is almost $50,000.
The Lightning was another entry in the US auto industry’s general trend of moving upmarket with bigger, pricier, and more profitable vehicles. Carveouts in fuel economy rules for trucks and SUVs have also contributed to vehicle bloat in recent decades.
The average new car price in the US has reached a record high of almost $50,000 in a country where the median household income is around $80,000. Even pickup trucks, which evoke a burly, working-class aesthetic, are often kitted out and priced like luxury cars.
Electrification adds another cost. Though electricity is cheaper than gasoline, the average EV has a higher sticker price than its gasoline counterpart. Public EV chargers are also nowhere near as ubiquitous as gas stations, and the ones available haven’t always been reliable. The Trump administration halted $5 billion in funding for more EV chargers, but after a court injunction, it began to release the cash.
“The top barrier for [EV] adoption is price, and then infrastructure,” said Stephanie Valdez Streaty, director of industry insights at Cox Automotive.
So, now, Ford is following a different route.
Its bet on a $30,000 truck is an inversion of the start-expensive-then-go-cheap strategy, and the company argues it’s a return to form. “Nearly 120 years ago, the Ford Model T became the ‘Universal Car.’ Why? It was affordable, adaptable, and serviceable,” wrote Ford CEO Jim Farley recently. “Now, we’re ushering in the next chapter with the Ford Universal EV Platform.”
You can read Umair's full story, including more details on the global EV landscape, on the Vox site here.
