Even before the Big Beautiful Bill ended the $7,500 tax credit, U.S. battery-electric vehicle (BEV) adoption lagged other developed nations, ranking 20th globally—behind countries like South Korea and Greece.
But the hesitancy to buy an EV had more to do with convenience than it did with government incentives. According to a study by S&P Global, 44% of Americans polled cited insufficient public charging for unwillingness to purchase an electric vehicle with less than 60 charging points per 1,000 square miles, compared to Denmark with more than a thousand charging points per 1,000 square miles.
Americans also blame range anxiety, cost, cold weather performance, and home charging challenges for their reluctance to buy an EV over either a hybrid or vehicle powered by an internal combustion engine.
In contrast to America is Norway, where more than 80% of new car sales are electric, fueled by long-standing government incentives that include tax exemptions, access to restricted travel lanes, and free parking and access to charging stations for EVs. At the same time, Norway imposes steep taxes on ICE vehicles, making the choice far clearer for Norwegian consumers than for those in the U.S.
Government policies are also credited with high BEV adoption rates in Hong Kong, Denmark, and Myanmar with more than 55% of those populations driving an electric vehicle. And while policy changes in Germany caused BEV sales to stall, the share of vehicles operated by battery rose to 23% in Q2.
While Americans are hesitant to go electric, hybrid sales – those in which the battery is charged by regenerative braking and the gas-powered engine — are taking up the slack. Of the 3.2M electric vehicles sold in the U.S. last year, nearly two-thirds were hybrids, representing 10.6% of total vehicle sales in the country. According to estimates from Wards Intelligence, as hybrids continue to gain market share, BEV and plug-in-hybrid sales have been flat since 2023.
So for now, America’s road to electrification looks more like a slow climb than a surge — led not by pure EVs, but by hybrids that offer a more practical middle ground.