Why Is The Gigantic EV Market Unbelievably Floundering In America?

The global EV race is arguably on track to compete with Lebron’s 2012-13 season in terms of glory, with Norway effectively booting out gas & diesel cars from its car market with a record 95.9% of all new cars registered being EV. On the other hand, China is almost set to contribute two-thirds of all global EV sales for two consecutive years in a row, thumping its chest as the crown jewel of the EV market. And for the first time, 39 countries have had an EV sales share larger than 10%. 

But not all hands are dealt the same, with the U.S having just 10% of its car sales being EV, as opposed to the 25% global average. Which makes us wonder, why is the motherland of Tesla subject to such a mediocre box-office performance. 

The U.S. automobile market is still hard wired on the traditional side of things, with SUVs & trucks accounting for 80% of all new cars purchased. This adamant purchase behavior can be further observed in YouGov’s survey data, where 69% of people prefer a gas vehicle as their go-to choice despite fuel prices being extremely volatile.  

Looking into some other buyer insights, Americans cite price, performance, safety and maintenance cost as their top priorities when making a new car purchase, all decisions favoring gas vehicles in their own retrospect. Whereas at the bottom of those priorities come advanced tech-features, environmental impact and availability of charging stations.  

These choices may or may not reflect a hindsight familiarity bias towards gas vehicles as well as how unfamiliar the general audience is with EVs. 

It didn’t help when President Trump decided to scrap the EV federal tax credits with his One Big Beautiful Bill, to an already unforgiving market. This gamble although helped carmakers achieve a temporary high in September, the hangover that followed was equally as abysmal. The Q4 sales in 2025 were reduced to just 234,171 units, a sharp decline from the Q4 sales of 2024 which was 365,830. And the year ended with a total of 1,275,714 EVs sold, lower than the previous year total of 1,301,441 units.  

Not all hope seems to be lost, as the nation saw a 19% charging infrastructure boost, with 780 new high speed charging stations opened this year. Additionally, Ford & GM are planning to launch affordable EVs, with Liz Najman, director of marketing insights at Recurrent, claiming that there will be about 16 models all, priced under $42,000 at the end of 2026.  

With all the odds stacked against the U.S. auto market, there’s still a silver lining to be seen, with all-round improvements across pricing, charging infrastructure and public scrutiny. The U.S. domestic market despite lagging behind the global curve, still is far from being washed, especially with such fierce competition and alarming climate risks. It’s only a matter of convenience and time until the global trend penetrates itself and kick starts the EV wave from within.