DEARBORN – August was Ford Motor Co.’s sixth consecutive month of sales gains, driven by SUVs and big gains in sales of electric vehicles as the nation’s car buyers hurried to get ahead of the expiration of the federal EV tax credit.

The big winner for Ford was its retail EV sales. Sales of EVs skyrocketed by 19% to a total of 10,671 sold in August. Year to date, however, Ford’s EV sales are down 5.7% at 57,888 sold.

“The ‘pull forward’ effect of vanishing EV incentives is reflected in Ford’s electric vehicle sales last month,” Karl Brauer, executive analyst with iSeeCars.com, told the Detroit Free Press on Sept. 3. “Consumers planning an EV purchase in the next three to six months are now rushing to buy one before the federal tax break goes away on September 30th.”

What’s driving EV sales

In August, Ford sold 18,773 hybrid vehicles, a gain of 14.5% compared with August 2024. Hybrid vehicles run on an electric motor before switching to a gasoline engine when its charge runs out.

Ford’s sales of internal combustion vehicles, those that run on gasoline, inched up 2% in August to 160,762 gasoline cars sold.

Year to date, Ford’s sales of hybrid vehicles are up 24% to 155,107 sold. January through August, Ford has sold 1.3 million gasoline-powered vehicles, a gain of 5.5% compared with the same period in 2024.

Sales of the all-electric Mustang Mach-E rose 35.3% to 7,226 in the month; sales of the Lightning F-150 rose 21.2% to 3,217 in the month; but sales of the limited commercial vehicle E-Transit plummeted 76% to 228 sold.

The driver behind these gains in retail EV sales is the mega-tax bill signed into law in July. That legislation pushed up the expiration date of the federal clean vehicle tax credit to Sept. 30 from its original date of 2032. That means the deadline for snagging a tax credit of up to $7,500 on a qualifying, new electric vehicle is closing in.

Car buyers can expect EV deals

Savvy consumers can’t help but be aware of the EV tax credit’s impending death. For those who aren’t, all they have to do is look at auto websites and ads. Some dealers are running headlines on their sites that read: “Plug in before it powers down.”

As the Detroit Free Press reported in early August, analysts predict EV sales to be the strongest ever during the third quarter as consumers scramble to take advantage of the tax credit.

“The urgency created by the administration’s decision to sunset government-backed, IRA-era EV incentives was expected to create serious demand for EVs in the short term. If last month is any measure: Mission Accomplished,” wrote Stephanie Valdez Streaty, Cox senior analyst, in a report released Aug. 13. “July sales were near an all-time monthly record. At this pace, Q3 will be the best ever and then some, as buyers jump in before the big incentives dry up.”

Brauer told the Free Press that the EV sales spike will continue through the end of September across all EV models, “followed by a whipsaw” in the other direction as EV sales evaporate in the fourth quarter.

“It’s a predictable pattern, one we see whenever large purchase incentives are removed from the marketplace,” Brauer said.

In the meantime, consumers can expect to find deals as EV inventory evaporates.

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