Now’s the time to buy.
That’s the message Ford is pitching amid a bevy of EV deals industrywide ahead of the Sept. 30 expiration of tax credits on EV purchases and leases.
The automaker recently extended through the end of September its Ford Power Promise, which aims to promote at-home charging by providing EV buyers with complimentary home chargers and installation.
“With everything that’s happening in the marketplace, not only the incentives that we have…and the fact that tax credits are still out there for some of these makes and models, now is the time to really double down and get as much as you can as a consumer,” Stacey Ferreira, Ford’s director of US sales strategy, told Tech Brew.
What’s changing: President Donald Trump signed the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” into law on July 4, nixing EV tax credits from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.
Those include a $7,500 tax credit for qualified new EV purchases, a $4,000 credit for qualified used EVs, and a “leasing loophole” that allows automakers to pass on incentives for some models that don’t qualify for the other credits.
EV deals were already plentiful. In June, average EV incentives hit an “all-time high”—14.8% of the average transaction price, according to Cox Automotive.
After a Q2 EV sales slump, analysts expect to see a Q3 surge as buyers interested in going electric look to lock in savings.
“With government-backed incentives set to end in September and economic pressures mounting, the second half of the year will be a critical test of EV demand,” Stephanie Valdez Streaty, senior analyst at Cox, said in a statement. “Q3 will likely be a record, followed by a collapse in Q4, as the electric vehicle market adjusts to its new reality.”
Deal? July’s EV lease deals include the Hyundai Kona EV for a monthly payment of $189, according to US News & World Report. Lexus is offering 0% financing on its electric RZ, consumers can get a 2025 Kia Nero EV lease for $129 per month for 24 months, and GM is offering 0% interest for 60 months to buy the Chevy Equinox EV, per the outlet.
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“There is no better deal than leasing an EV,” Ivan Drury, director of insights at Edmunds, told us. “You can easily get a vehicle that has an MSRP of $15,000–$20,000 more than its ICE equivalent, yet the payments might be the same or lower.”
Though he hasn’t seen many automakers using the looming tax credit expiration to advertise incentives, Drury expects a bigger push closer to September. But consumers shouldn’t wait, he said: “If you were looking at this like, ‘Wow, I want to scoop up a $150-a-month Equinox EV,’ you better get to it.”
Promise extended: The Ford Power Promise is available to retail customers who buy or lease a new 2024/2025 Mustang Mach-E, 2025 F-150 Lightning, or 2024/2025 E-Transit cargo van from a participating Ford dealer.
“The idea was, how can we make that barrier to entry extremely simple for our customers?” Ferreira said. Since debuting the program in October, Ford has installed more than 10,000 home chargers.
Ford didn’t extend the program specifically to align with the end of the tax credits, Ferreira said, but she expects to see higher sales in Q3 and for some EV fence-sitters to take the leap before Oct. 1.
“There [are] going to be folks that want to get into the vehicles before the tax credit goes away,” she said. “So we’re excited for Q3. We think it’s going to be strong.”