# EV Sales Keep Sliding Even as Gas Prices Surge, After Trump Rolled Back Tax Credits and Mileage Rules

> Gas prices surged past $4.35 a gallon after U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran in February, yet EV sales have kept falling as the Trump administration eliminated federal tax credits, loosened fuel economy rules, and tightened restrictions on Chinese made vehicles.

- Source: American Post News
- Canonical URL: https://americanpostnews.net/article/ev-sales-keep-sliding-even-as-gas-prices-surge-after-trump-rolled-back-tax-credits-and-mileage-rules
- Author: staff
- Section: Economy
- Published: 2026-10-21T20:16:44.835Z
- Updated: 2026-10-21T20:16:44.835Z
- Tags: Electric Vehicles, Trump Administration, Gas Prices, Automakers

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Gas prices climbed from $2.94 to $4.35 a gallon within three months of U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28, and oil has stayed above $100 a barrel into mid-October, with diesel hitting a record $6.52 a gallon on September 22. The kind of price shock that has historically pushed buyers toward more efficient vehicles has not translated into stronger electric vehicle sales this time.

EV sales fell 16% from March to May compared with the same period a year earlier, while hybrid sales rose 18% over the same stretch, topping 216,000 units a month through the summer as EV sales ran closer to 86,000 to 101,000 units a month. EV's share of new vehicle sales collapsed from 11.3% in September 2025 to 4.3% by that November, after the federal EV tax credit, worth $7,500 on new vehicles and $4,000 on used ones, expired on September 30, 2025, under legislation Trump signed that July.

The pullback has rippled into the used market and automakers' own plans. Used EV prices climbed roughly 13%, or about $3,500 a vehicle, through late June, with a used 2023 Chevrolet Bolt up nearly 20% over the same period, while new EV discounts shrank from 9.8% in February to 4.7% in June as inventory tightened. General Motors laid off more than 3,400 workers at EV and battery plants and converted a Tennessee factory to make energy storage batteries, while Ford wrote off $19.5 billion from its EV division, ended F-150 Lightning production, and converted its own Tennessee EV plant to build gas powered trucks.

The administration has layered on further changes, loosening fuel economy standards on September 28 and phasing out by 2028 the credit system that let EV makers sell compliance credits to other automakers, while imposing tariffs exceeding 100% on Chinese made EVs and a Commerce Department rule barring cars from Chinese linked automakers starting with the 2027 model year, even if built in the United States. John Paul Helveston, an engineering management professor at George Washington University, has argued the shift reflects supply decisions more than falling demand, saying automakers read the end of the tax credits as a sign of weakening interest and pulled back in ways that created real shortages for the EV buyers who remain.

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Originally published by American Post News. Free to cite with attribution and a link to https://americanpostnews.net/article/ev-sales-keep-sliding-even-as-gas-prices-surge-after-trump-rolled-back-tax-credits-and-mileage-rules.