---

---

On July 15, 2025, Bloomberg Green hosted a conference in Seattle, Washington, where Bob Holycross, the chief sustainability, environment, and safety officer for Ford, told the audience the least expensive electric vehicle the company offers — the Mustang Mach-E — sells for as little as $37,995. Is Ford trying to pull a fast one by including the (soon to disappear) $7500 federal tax credit the way Tesla does? No, it is not.

According to a footnote on the Ford website, “Current Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) for base vehicle. Excludes destination/delivery fee plus government fees and taxes, any finance charges, any dealer processing charge, any electronic filing charge, and any emission testing charge. Optional equipment not included. Starting A/X/Z Plan price is for qualified, eligible customers and excludes document fee, destination/delivery charge, taxes, title and registration. Not all vehicles qualify for A/X/Z Plan.”

Okay, and what is the A/X/Z Plan? It is a collection of special programs for current Ford employees, retirees, surviving spouses, and industry partners. We could carp that Ford is currently running a national advertising campaign that says everyone pays what Ford employees pay. That program is designed to take some of the sting out of the cockamamie tariffs imposed by the failed US administration. We don’t want to disparage Ford — at least it is trying to make sense out of a chaotic situation — but its ad campaign and its advertised prices for those eligible for A/X/Z pricing seem to be at odds with each other.

Average Transaction Prices For EVs Are Declining.

The good news, according to Bloomberg, is that the average transaction price of a new EV in the US has gone down by 7.4 percent since January of 2023. But at $59,900, EVs in the US still cost about $11,000 more than a comparable gasoline model, so there is still room for improvement. The $37,995 price for a base Mustang Mach-E is 22% less than the average price of a new car in the US today — not too shabby!

“That’s exactly where we have to go,” Holycross told the audience. “If we’re really going to get into that … more significant majority — rather than the early majority — affordability is going to play into that.” Bloomberg says there are now 19 battery-electric models that can be purchased in the US for less than the average new car. The number of EVs available in the US has doubled in the past three years, and many of those new models are competitively priced. However, the average price of an EV gets dragged upwards by such premium models as the Lucid Air, Chevy Silverado EV, Hummer EV, Ford Lightning, and the like.

AfFORDability

“When it comes to affordability … we have to compete,” Holycross said, “not just in our industry but on a global scale as well.” He said Ford plans to expand its hybrid options across its portfolio while its engineering teams are busy designing so-called extended range electric vehicles, which use a gasoline engine solely to charge the battery. Those EREVs are proving extremely popular in China, with BYD offering one model with a combined range on both electrons and molecules of 1300 miles. Think of it as a BMW i3 REX on steroids! Yeah, that range is according to the ultra optimistic Chinese testing protocol, but it is way more than the average human bladder can withstand without stopping.

“It becomes part of the suite of technologies we have to give serious consideration,” Holycross said. “What we really need to be talking about is zero-emissions miles traveled,” he added, not just electric range.

One frequent discussion among the gang of wingnuts at CleanTechnica ever since the Inflation Reduction Act passed 3 years ago involves EV incentives. There are some who think the primary beneficiaries of such market inducements are manufacturers, who are able to keep prices higher than they otherwise would be if the inducements did not exist. Now that the federal tax credit of $7500 will expire on September 30 this year, we are about to find out if that is true. Will average prices for new electric cars fall significantly beginning October 1? A lot of people will be looking for the answer to that question.

BNEF 2025 Sees EV Slowdown In Major Markets

The 2025 edition of the BloombergNEF Electric Vehicle Outlook begins with this summary:

Global sales of electric vehicles continue to rise and are set to represent one in four cars sold this year. But some markets are experiencing a significant slowdown, and many automakers have pushed back their EV targets. Electrification is spreading quickly in other areas of road transport, with buses and two- and three-wheelers already reaching very high levels of adoption.

China dominates the global EV market, with over half of vehicles sold there now electric. Sales in the US are slowing and face uncertainty due to policy changes, while some emerging economies are experiencing record sales as more low-cost electric models arrive targeting local buyers.

“Variations in EV sales have a long-lasting impact on the total number of electric vehicles on the road,” BNEF says.

“By 2040, only 40% of the global passenger vehicle fleet is electric in our outlook. The fleet electrifies faster than that in several domains, like the Nordics (72%), China (69%) and the UK (66%), but some of the biggest car markets, like the US and Japan, are much lower.

“The electric passenger vehicle fleet will surpass the internal combustion engine vehicle fleet across several auto markets in the 2030s, starting with Norway in 2030, then China in 2033, California in 2037 and Germany in 2039. In many markets, it’s also not a clear head-to-head battle between conventional vehicles and electric, with other drivetrains either maintaining a large share of vehicle sales or growing their share at a significant pace.

“Compressed natural gas vehicles (CNG), flex-fuel vehicles and hybrids can meaningfully displace internal combustion engine vehicles from the passenger vehicle fleet. But in most cases, they don’t offer the same decarbonization potential of electric vehicles. These drivetrains can also impact the uptake of electric vehicles.

“Some 38 percent of two-wheelers sold in 2024 were electric, driven by growing demand in the moped and scooter segments. Yet, high upfront price premiums and meager model offerings in the motorcycle segment hold adoption back, and by 2028 only 42% of all two-wheelers sold will come with a plug.”

BNEF concludes this year’s report by saying,”Falling battery prices and rising penetration of low-cost battery chemistries, such as sodium ion and lithium iron phosphate help EV sales will grow to 93 million by 2040 — or 87% of total sales — thanks to their lower costs, which will help accelerate the trend toward lower priced electric vehicles.”

The takeaway is that the latest anti-EV policies from this failed administration are likely to set the EV revolution in the US back by ten to fifteen years. The fossil fuel crowd will face questions from their grandchildren about why they allowed the quest for a few more dollars to avoid taking action to keep the Earth from overheating. “That money paid for your new sneakers and tuition to that fancy prep school,” they will say, but they will know in their hearts that they are no better than Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. Good luck getting into heaven with that stain on your record!