DETROIT (WWJ) The looming end of federal EV tax credits gave electric vehicle sales a boost in August
“August was our best month ever for EV sales,” said GM President, North America Duncan Aldred, who said in a blog post that General Motors remains the nation’s #2 EV seller, behind Tesla.
“U.S. electric vehicle sales likely set an all-time monthly record in August, as customers rushed to make purchases ahead of the expiration of Federal EV tax credits. For General Motors, that meant sales of more than 21,000 EVs combined from Chevrolet, Cadillac, and GMC.”
The carmakers who still report sales monthly will be releasing them throughout the week. GM releases their total sales on a quarterly basis. Alred’s blog dealt with EV’s specifically, as the clock ticks on a federal tax credit that expires at the end of September.
“We’re expecting strong demand once again in September,” wrote Aldred. “The question, of course, is what’s next? There’s no doubt we’ll see lower EV sales next quarter after tax credits end September 30, and it may take several months for the market to normalize. We will almost certainly see a smaller EV market for a while, and we won’t overproduce.”
GM has already taken moves to keep from overproducing electric vehicles. They scaled back production of certain EV’s at Factory Zero in Detroit, leading to more than 300 layoffs.
Aldred says he expects to see others do the same with what he called “marginal competitors” scaling back products and plans that should end “much of the overproduction and irrational discounts we’ve seen in the marketplace.”
That could mean fewer discounts for customers seeking an EV long term. Some analysts, however, say that if EV’s sit on dealer lots for a long period of time, that could force carmakers into providing discounts.