- Ford has canceled its plan to keep the $7,500 EV lease credit alive by the end of the year.
- The $7,500 federal tax credit was dropped on September 30, but the automaker came up with a solution to claim the credit by buying the cars on dealer lots.
- Ford follows in GM’s footsteps, which also said it would extend the lease credit, but then changed its mind.
Ford is backing out of a program that was supposed to extend the $7,500 federal tax credit on new EV leases by the end of the year, as first reported by Reuters.
As a reminder, the tax credit for new electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles ended on September 30, but Ford and General Motors said they would pass along the savings to potential customers by allowing dealers to buy the EVs in their inventory and claim the federal tax credit. Then, the cars would have been leased with the tax credit already factored into the final price.
“Ford will not claim the EV tax credit but will maintain the competitive lease payments we have in the market today,” a spokesperson told Reuters. Currently, the American automaker’s lending arm, Ford Credit, offers 0% financing for 72 months on new EVs, as well as other incentives, according to the company’s spokesperson.
Earlier this week, GM backed out of a similar solution. It initially wanted to pass on the discount to consumers “at participant dealers, while supplies last,” according to a company spokesperson who confirmed the program last month for InsideEVs. After dropping the support scheme, GM said it will self-fund the lease incentives until the end of October.
Both Ford and General Motors came up with their strategies after discussions with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), as reported by Reuters.
GM dropped its program after U.S. Senator Bernie Moreno, who has a luxury car dealership empire in Ohio, sent a letter to U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent condemning the actions of “certain car companies who wish to continue bilking the U.S. taxpayer.” It’s unclear why Ford canceled its program.
The American EV market is expected to take a big hit after the Trump administration pulled the plug on the $7,500 federal tax credit at the end of last month. Ford CEO Jim Farley said he wouldn’t be surprised if the EV market share goes down from the current level of roughly 10-to-12% to just 5%.
Meanwhile, Hyundai Motor North America’s CEO, Randy Parker, is confident that the American EV market is more resilient.
