Trump’s remarkable mess on electric vehicles: How he made them more expensive and harder to find just as he went to war on Iran
Source: Fortune ·
Before the war, prices for used electric vehicles were still drifting down in the wake of the expired used EV federal tax credit. Then a run on EVs began.
From the source
Within three months of the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran on Feb. 28, 2026, the average price of gasoline for American drivers climbed from US$2.94 to $4.35 a gallon. If there was ever a moment for Americans to switch to electric vehicles, this was it. From March to May 2026, in fact, sales of hybrid electric vehicles were 18% higher than over the same months in 2025. But sales of fully electric vehicles were 16% lower from March to May 2026 compared with the same months in 2025. Some observers took that as evidence that high gas prices alone wouldn’t push Americans toward fully electric cars, but that conclusion misses half the story. I study car buyers and their preferences, and there is an important distinction between what consumers want and what they can actually buy. Sales reveal what cars people actually bought, but not necessarily what they actually wanted. When the supply of some kinds of cars can’t keep up with demand, prices rise, and that’s exactly what happened for…