With US President-Elect Trump reportedly planning to cut federal incentives, EV sales are expected to surge in November and December. Right now, major discounts are slashing upwards of $10,000 to $20,000 off some of the most popular EV models, but that could change in 2025.

EV sales are expected to surge with discounts on the line

According to Cox Automotive, “EV sales are expected to surge in November and December” ahead of Trump taking office.

“We may see an increase in electric vehicle (EV) and plug-in hybrid (PHEV) sales over the next few months as buyers move to take advantage of discounts that may disappear in 2025,” Charlie Chesbrough, senior economist at Cox Automotive, said.

A Reuters report earlier this month claimed Trump’s transition team was planning to kill off the $7,500 federal tax credit for clean car buyers.

Chesbrough explained that with fewer discounts on the line, buyers are expected to take advantage of them while they are still being offered, leading to “robust activity through the end of the year.”

In October, EV sales in the US reached a milestone. With another 106,155 units sold last month, over 1 million EVs have now been handed over to buyers.

EV lease deals are adding up

Higher incentives and discounts have helped fuel the growth. In Q3, EV incentives were over 12% of the vehicle’s average transaction price, much higher than the industry average of about 7%.

The $7,500 federal tax credit is the biggest factor behind the discounts. Although the credit is for EV purchases, a loophole enables automakers to pass it on through leasing.

Combined with other offers like loyalty and conquest, lease discounts, and bonus cash, some EV discounts are reaching upwards of $10,000 to even $20,000.

For example, you can score up to $21,150 off the 2024 Acura ZDX luxury SUV with combined discount offers. Ford is also offering up to $17,500 off its F-150 Lightning pickup through an end-of-year promo. A few EVs are even available to lease for under $300 this month.

Several new lower-priced models, like the $35,000 Chevy Equinox EV LT and Honda Prologue, are also hitting the market. The electric Equinox and Prologue SUVs helped push EV incentives to a record high in October.

With the $7,500 credit, the 2025 Chevrolet Equinox EV can be bought for as little as $26,100. GM calls the new electric SUV “America’s most affordable 315+ mile range EV.”

Honda just extended its ultra-low $229 per month lease offer to 17 additional US states after introducing it in California last month. For a nearly $50,000 electric SUV, $229 per month (36 months, 10,000 miles per year) is a pretty good deal.

Ready to take advantage of the savings? The offers won’t last long. You can use our links below to find deals on popular EV models in your area.

Tesla adds direct charge port defrosting option just in time for winter

During Model 3’s first winter in 2018, we reported that the electric car had some issues with the cold weather, and Tesla said they were investigating the situation.

Several owners in cold weather regions were experiencing difficulties entering their vehicles because the door handles wouldn’t open, the windows, which need to go down about an inch to open the doors, would jam, and even the charge port would freeze shut.

A week later, Tesla released a software update to help with some of these issues.

Later, they also released a new software update to use climate control to help thaw the charge port when it gets frozen.

However, the real solution to the freezing charge port was a heater dedicated to it, which Tesla started putting in its vehicles in late 2020.

While charge port heaters have been in vehicles for years, Tesla never really gave the option to owners to specifically defrost their charge ports. Instead, it would activate when turning on the overall or rear defrosting functions of the vehicles.

This is now changing.

Not A Tesla App, which tracks Tesla software updates, is nothing that some Tesla vehicles are now getting the specific option to activate the charge port heater with the latest software update:

Tesla has finally added a solution to this problem. You can now manually turn on the charge port heater by going to Controls > Service > Charge Port Heater. However, the feature is not available on all vehicles. It’s only appearing in the release notes for a very small segment of vehicles. We’ve confirmed that it is showing up on a 2024 Model X and some 2023 Model Ys on Tesla software update 2024.44.3.1.

The change is coming right in time for the cold weather, and it should enable owners to target the charge port when needed – increasing efficiency.

Electrek’s Take

To be honest, I haven’t heard many issues about frozen charge ports since the first winter with the Model 3. I had this issue myself during the first winter.

There were a few reports about it the next two winters, but Tesla did help a lot simply with a software update to better manage the airflow toward the charge port area. Then, when the heater was introduced, it seemed to have basically eliminated the issue.

I still like to have a direct option to activate the specific charge port heater. It makes sense.

With plans to drastically downsize its workforce, Ford’s future in Germany looks bleak. According to Germany’s largest trade union, Ford’s new job cuts “would mean an incremental death” to its future in Cologne.

Ford’s job cuts spark backlash in Germany

On November 20, Ford announced plans to cut another 4,000 jobs in Europe by the end of 2027. Most of them will be in Germany, about 2,900 of the eliminated positions.

The move comes after Ford incurred “significant losses” in recent years amid a “highly disruptive” influx of new competition, mainly electric models. Ford blames slower-than-expected demand for its EVs and a weakening economic situation for the downsizing.

According to the German newspaper Automobilwoche, Ford’s job cuts are now being discussed among economic committee members in the state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia.

SPD parliamentary group leader Jochen Ott said, “The job cuts announced on November 20 are a breach of the agreement reached in February 2023.” Ott added that the lack of transparency and late information provided to the works council are a “blatant breach of trust and a slap in the face.”

Germany’s largest trade union, IG Metall, even chimed in, claiming the plans “pose a massive threat to the continued existence” of Ford’s remaining German sites.

Ford is still the largest employer in Cologne, but it will slash about one in four of its current 12,000 jobs by the end of 2027. By then, the American automaker will have halved its workforce in just ten years.

Two electric models, the Explorer and Capri EVs, are currently built in Cologne, but lack of demand is forcing Ford to slow production. Ford began building Capri EV models just last month after the electric Explorer in June.

Electrek’s Take

Ford is struggling to keep up in Europe as new competition enters the market. With China becoming flooded with low-cost EVs, domestic automakers are looking overseas for growth, and Europe is one of the biggest targets.

BYD, MG, NIO, and others are launching advanced new EV models aimed at European buyers. After squeezing legacy automakers like Ford, VW, and Toyota out of their home market, Chinese EV leaders are now looking for a bigger share of the global market.

As its record sales run continues, BYD topped Nissan and Honda for the first time in global deliveries this year. Now, it’s closing in on Ford.

According to a recent Bloomberg report, BYD is quickly closing in on Ford in global deliveries and could top the American automaker sooner than expected.

CEO Jim Farley acknowledged the threat of Chinese automakers, saying, “As the CEO of a company that had trouble competing with the Japanese and the South Koreans, we have to fix this problem.”

Ford is shifting plans to focus on smaller, more profitable EVs with a new low-cost platform. However, the first model, a midsize electric truck, won’t hit the market until 2027. By then, it could be too little, too late.