Oops! Turns out, you have to pay people to buy one of these things.

Loss of tax credits led to a drop-off in EV sales. Will they rebound?

In October, once the federal tax credits were gone, [Connecticut’s own subsidy program] CHEAPR rebates for fully electric vehicles were increased to $1,000, while the amount available for plug-in hybrids remained at $500. Some vehicle owners may get up to $4,000 total in additional incentive under the Rebate+ program for low and moderate-income buyers, or people living in environmental justice communities.

(Did opening Tod’s Point, albeit under court order, make Greenwich an “environmental justice community”? Asking for a friend.)

Still, those increases have not been enough to spur demand for EVs after the loss of the more valuable federal tax incentives, according to Kresch.
“I think what we can say is the [state] incentive is too small on its own to fill the gap,” Kresch said. “It’s good that it’s there, but it’s only $1,000.”

This is Spinal tap

[Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Commissioner Katie Dykes] noted that EVs accounted for about 6% of all new vehicles sold in Connecticut during the final quarter of 2025. While that number was a decline from over 10% throughout most of last year, it was on par with the market for EVs as recently as 2022.
“I think those folks who might have assumed that regulatory rollbacks … or rolling back federal tax credits would be the nail in the coffin of electric vehicles, have maybe not really been in touch with with consumer sentiment lately,” Dykes said.
She added, “the elimination of the federal tax credit has certainly had an impact on consumer consumer adoption, but I think it’s ultimately just going to contribute to maybe a slower pace of adoption.”

More GIGO:

One positive sign for EV adoption in recent months has been a national uptick in the number of people purchasing used vehicles, according to Barry Kresch, the president of the Electric Vehicle Club of Connecticut.
Kresch said that interest is being driven glut of used EVs entering the market as leases expire on cars that were originally eligible for the federal tax incentives under the so-called “leasing loophole” included in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. The wide availability of those used EVs has made their price more comparable with their gas counterparts.
“If you’re in the used car market and you’re seeing the price of gas, it looks like a pretty attractive deal,” Kresch said. “As far as the price of gas affecting new vehicle sales, I think prices would have to stay high for a while.”

EV’s depreciate far faster than gas-powered cars: 50-65% over five years, often 50% in just the first 12 months of ownership. So yes, that makes used EVs cheaper, but their hapless buyer is acquiring a dying battery that will cost between $8-$15,000 to replace and, thanks to ever-changing technology, already obsolete. Such a deal.

One company that saw the writing on the wall(et) two years ago was Hertz:

AI Overview

Hertz is scaling back its EV fleet, selling approximately 30,000 EVs (mainly Teslas) by the end of 2024, because high repair costs and rapid depreciation caused massive losses

The company halted some purchases due to crashing resale values, partly driven by Tesla’s new price cuts, leading to hundreds of millions in losses.

Key Factors in Hertz's EV Pullback:

Plummeting Resale Value: Rapid depreciation of used EVs, particularly Teslas, resulted in a $245 million write-down in 2023.
High Damage Costs: Electric vehicles incurred higher collision and repair costs compared to traditional, gas-powered vehicles.
Reduced Demand: Customer demand for electric rentals did not meet the company’s ambitious projections, prompting a shift back toward gasoline vehicles.
Initial Overestimation: The company's strategy of selling off used rental cars proved ineffective with EVs due to their volatile market value.

Hertz had initially planned a major, high-profile electrification of its fleet (e.g., 100,000 Teslas) but has shifted to align its fleet with lower-maintenance, lower-depreciation cars.