Starting this month, the United States ended the tax credit of up to $7,500 (about 11 million won) that had been offered to electric-vehicle buyers, prompting automakers to revise their EV strategies. Hyundai Motor and Ford moved to large-scale discounts, accepting losses, while Japan's Nissan scrapped its plan to produce EVs locally.
On the 1st (local time), Hyundai Motor's U.S. unit said it will cut the price of the 2026 Ioniq 5 by up to $9,800 (about 14 million won). According to Electrek, a U.S. EV-focused outlet, the Ioniq 5 currently starts at $35,000 (about 49 million won), making it one of the cheapest EVs along with the Chevrolet Equinox EV. For the 2025 model, the company decided to offer a $7,500 cash incentive. The industry says such a scale of discount is unusual.
An EV industry official said, "If the vanished EV subsidies are passed on to consumers as is, cars won't sell, so corporations are shouldering the burden," adding, "There will be differences by company, but they have no choice but to lower prices."
Ford and General Motors (GM) in the United States also say they will continue offering incentives equivalent to the EV subsidies. GM is discussing with dealers a plan to extend the $7,500 benefit with no time limit. Ford projected a loss of up to $5.5 billion (about 7.7 trillion won) in its EV business this year. Jim Farley, Ford's chief executive officer (CEO), said, "I don't want to say these (discount) programs will last forever."
With the U.S. ending EV benefits, a slowdown in EV sales appears inevitable. CEO Farley said at the Ford Pro Accelerate event on the 30th that EV market share could fall to 5% after October from about 10%–12% in September. The prevailing view is that even the double-digit EV market share in September was driven by demand rushing in to capture benefits before the subsidies ended. Hyundai Motor's U.S. sales in September were 71,003 units, up 14% from a year earlier, while Ioniq 5 retail sales surged 151% over the same period.
There are even corporations pulling the plug on U.S. EV production. Nissan on the 1st announced it would halt plans to produce EVs at its Canton, Mississippi, plant. Nissan had initially planned to build two electric sport utility vehicle (SUV) models there from late 2028 through the first half of 2029. The batteries were also to come from SK On's U.S. plant.
Instead, Nissan will restart the plant by reviving the discontinued Xterra SUV as a hybrid model. Nissan CEO Christian Meunier said, "We are continuing to review options for EV production in the U.S., but we must either drastically reduce manufacturing expense or find a partner to share the risk," adding, "Given the very high uncertainty around EVs, this is something we must do."