By David Shepardson and Kalea Hall
NEW YORK, April 1 (Reuters) – Major automakers unveiled new electric vehicles at the New York Auto Show on Wednesday, despite lagging consumer demand and a sharp downturn in sales after Washington eliminated a $7,500 EV tax credit.
Kia said it would begin selling its lower-priced EV3 in the United States later this year, while Subaru offered a new three-row EV named the “Getaway” that can seat seven. The Japanese automaker’s family EV SUV will go on sale later this year or next year, its fourth EV model in the U.S. market.
Automakers are facing a tougher U.S. EV market but higher gasoline prices in recent weeks have spurred fresh interest.
“The market is going to come back for EVs – maybe not as quickly as we all would have liked,” said Russell Wager, vice president of marketing at Kia America. “We’re committed to it.”
Kia said the U.S. EV market could return to where it was in the next three or four years.
GM recently began selling its Chevrolet Bolt EV that starts at $27,600 after it ended the prior generation in 2023.
The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a trade group representing GM , Ford, Toyota Motor, Volkswagen, Hyundai, Stellantis and other major automakers, said EV sales were 9.6% of all U.S. sales in 2025 but fell to 6.5% in the last three months – the lowest since early 2022 – after the $7,500 EV tax credit expired on September 30.
Christian Meunier, chairman of Nissan Americas, said the U.S. market has dropped substantially.
“When you look at the EV market right now, there’s no demand,” Meunier said in an interview with Reuters at the New York Auto Show. “The demand has disappeared. It’s like 7% of the market, and half of that is stimulated by very heavy incentives, so it’s not natural demand.”
Hyundai Motor CEO Jose Munoz said that as fuel prices have risen, particularly in California, the company has seen a trend towards increased EV sales, “not driven by regulation, but driven by the market conditions.” The automaker has revised its plans to include more hybrid production.
“I think we’re going to see an evolution where, step by step, EVs will increase a little bit, let’s say maybe 10-15% of the market, but not like 50 or 60%,” Munoz told Reuters.
David Christ, general manager of the Toyota Division at Toyota Motor North America, said that the Japanese automaker is introducing three EVs in the U.S. this year, and higher fuel prices would provide a boost.
“I don’t think they’re going to get a boost back to the incentivized government money levels, but it’ll be higher than it would have been without the gas price shock,” Christ said.
EVs now account for 2.5% of total light-duty vehicles in operation in the U.S.. EV sales accounted for 10.2% of total vehicle sales in 2024.
President Donald Trump has taken a series of steps to disincentivize EV purchases and production and make it easier to produce gas-powered models.
(Reporting by Kalea Hall and David Shepardson; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
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