U.S. registrations of new battery-electric vehicles surged in November as buyers took advantage of automaker discounts and rushed to lock in the $7,500 federal tax credit prior to the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump.

Trump is expected to trim the incentives or repeal them entirely.

New EV registrations rose 21 percent to 109,120 vehicles in November compared with the same month a year earlier, according to the most recent data from S&P Global Mobility. Battery-electric models captured 8.3 percent of the U.S. light-vehicle market for the month, up from 7.4 percent in November 2023. The data does not include gasoline-electric hybrids.

Trump, with Republicans in control of Congress, is expected to repeal or modify the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act that includes the credits. Tesla CEO Elon Musk, a Trump adviser, said in December he also opposes the subsidies.

“You have consumers who are paying attention, thinking that if the IRA tax incentive goes away that’s going to impact if they want to buy or lease an EV,” said Stephanie Valdez Streaty, director of industry insights at Cox Automotive. “People who are in the market and are considering an EV are jumping on it.”

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On top of the EV tax credits, automakers offered strong end-of-year incentives, such as subsidized financing rates and lease deals. That brought EV monthly payments down to parity with many comparable gasoline and hybrid vehicles, which generally have lower sticker prices, said Tom Libby, an analyst at S&P Global Mobility.

EV registrations lead market

In November, EVs significantly outpaced gains in overall light-vehicle registrations, which rose 8.3 percent to 1.31 million vehicles in November, S&P Global Mobility said.

Factory incentives on the Honda Prologue crossover, which launched in the spring, reached $10,860 per vehicle in November, Motor Intelligence said. For the larger Acura ZDX crossover, the incentive was nearly $17,000. Tesla’s average incentive across its lineup was $5,601 in November, Motor Intelligence said.

“There’s been really good lease deals and manufacturer incentives,” said Valdez Streaty. “And there’s been new products.” Cox Automotive estimates U.S. electric vehicle sales in the fourth quarter rose 15 percent overall.

One side effect of the recent EV sales surge could be slower sales in coming months, said Karl Brauer, executive analyst at iSeeCars.

“People who were thinking about buying an EV in the next six months to a year are coming out and doing it now” Brauer said. “I don’t think we’re going to see good numbers in 2025.”

On the other hand, automakers that are committed to increasing electric vehicle production will have to find ways to grow sales, including by reducing prices if government support goes away, Libby said.

November registrations showed broad gains across a variety of auto brands.

Chevrolet saw its EV registrations more than double compared with a year earlier, Ford increased 14 percent, Hyundai rose 60 percent and Kia jumped 88 percent. Among the top 10 EV brands, only two declined. Rivian was down 57 percent amid production issues and BMW fell 7 percent.

Among automaker groups, General Motors ranked second after Tesla for EV registrations, Hyundai Motor Group was third and Ford Motor Co. fourth.

Tesla had 46,225 registrations in November, an 8.2 percent gain over the year-earlier month, S&P Global Mobility said. But Tesla’s share of the battery-electric market fell to 42 percent, a decline of five percentage points from a year earlier. GM’s electric vehicle share rose to 14 percent in November from 6.5 percent a year earlier.

Because Tesla doesn’t break out U.S. sales or report sales by model, registration data serves as a proxy. Some other automakers also don’t detail EV sales by model.

The Cybertruck was the best-selling EV pickup in November with 3,653 registrations, S&P Global Mobility said. But there were signs of cooling interest. The pickup had 4,041 registrations in October and 4,278 in September.

Annual EV registrations rise expected

Overall, 2024 was a decent year for electric vehicle sales, analysts said. EV registrations for the January-November period totaled 1.13 million for a 9.6 percent gain over the same period in 2023, S&P Global Mobility said. EV share of the light-vehicle market rose modestly to 7.8 percent from 7.4 percent a year earlier.

In a separate report, Cox estimated full-year 2024 electric vehicle sales at 1.3 million, a 7.3 percent increase over 2023. This year, Cox forecasts battery-electric vehicles will capture a 10 percent share of the light-vehicle market compared with its estimate of 8.1 percent in 2024.

GM showed significant gains last year, both with its own vehicles and the ones it makes with Honda Motor Co., the Honda Prologue and Acura ZDX.

The Prologue, which shares the Chevrolet Equinox EV platform, had 6,527 registrations in November, good for the No. 3 spot behind Tesla’s Model Y and Model 3, S&P Global Mobility said. The Equinox EV was No. 4 with 6,471 registrations, the Cadillac Lyriq was No. 9 with 2,701 vehicles and the Chevrolet Blazer EV was No. 10 with 2,635 registrations, the data showed.

Rounding out the top 10 EVs in November, the Ford Mustang Mach-E was No. 5 with 4,950 registrations, the Hyundai Ioniq 5 was No. 6 with 4,529 and the Cybertruck was No. 7.

“We’re going to see GM go up and up, I think, and the same is true for Hyundai and Kia,” Libby said. “Honda buyers who have been interested in EVs but loyal to the brand now have an electric model to buy and they are going for it.”