HONOLULU (KHON2) — Buying an electric vehicle could look a bit different in the near future, thousands of dollars different.
Federal EV rebates will expire on Sept. 30, meaning that purchases of EVs after that will no longer include a federal refund meant to incentivize buying a car better for the environment.
Purchases of new EVs would see around a $7,500 rebate, and a $4,000 rebate for used.
Rebates were initially not meant to expire until 2032, but following the passing of President Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill, that window is closing much sooner than expected.
“We won’t know yet what the impact is, but could anticipate that people who are making a decision to buy an EV or not will take that into consideration,” said Melissa Pavlicek, Executive Director of Hawai’i Automobile Dealers’ Association. “Hawai’i already has one of the higher rates of adoption of EVs.”
“I think what we’re seeing is people thinking carefully about if they were planning to make a decision to purchase plug-in electric,” Pavlicek continued. “They know that the tax credit is expiring, they might be advancing that for a few weeks.”
“We bought our electric vehicle earlier this year, sometime in the summer,” said Helmut Kae, an electric vehicle owner for many years. “We were going to buy a car around that time anyway, so it was nice that we were able to get it before the tax credit expired.”
Moving forward, the HADA is looking to help Hawaii’s electric vehicle market by adding and improving some of Hawaii’s infrastructure to include more accessibility to charging stations.
“In Hawai’i, there’s always concerns about having adequate infrastructure for plug-in electric vehicles. Our dense urban population means we need more infrastructure available,” said Pavlicek. “We met with our Hawai’i congressional delegation. They reiterated their commitment to promoting renewable energy, and we’re working closely with them to ensure that our Hawai’i consumers have options.”