I’ve spent the past year documenting what happens when you build an industry on government subsidies. Now we have the data to prove what we suspected all along: the $7,500 federal tax credit never drove genuine EV demand.

Deloitte’s 2026 Global Automotive Consumer Study, released today, surveyed more than 28,500 consumers across 27 countries between October and November 2025. That timing matters. The survey was conducted entirely after the federal EV tax credit expired on September 30, 2025, giving us the first real look at post-subsidy consumer sentiment.

The headline everyone is running: only 7% of American car buyers want an EV for their next vehicle. But that’s not the story.

What: Deloitte’s 2026 Global Automotive Consumer Study finds government incentives rank dead last (19%) among reasons Americans consider EVs
Who: 28,500+ consumers surveyed across 27 countries, including detailed U.S. data
When: Survey conducted October-November 2025, entirely after the tax credit expiration
Why it matters: EV interest grew 40% year-over-year (from 5% to 7%) despite losing $7,500 in federal subsidies

The Incentive Myth Finally Dies

Here’s what Deloitte found when they asked Americans why they’d consider an EV:

Lower fuel costs: 52%
Concern for the environment: 38%
Driving experience: 30%
Longer range: 28%
Less maintenance: 28%
Availability of charging stations: 27%
Faster charging speed: 26%
Better lifestyle experience: 26%
Brand reputation: 22%
Government incentives/subsidies: 19%

Read that last line again. Government incentives ranked below brand reputation, below charging speed, below lifestyle experience. Dead last.

This validates what we’ve been reporting since the Big Beautiful Bill eliminated the tax credit in July 2025. The subsidy wasn’t converting skeptics into buyers. It was padding the bottom line for people who were already going to buy EVs.

The 40% Growth Nobody Is Talking About

Every headline is screaming that only 7% of Americans want EVs. But compare that to Deloitte’s 2025 survey, which found just 5% of U.S. car buyers wanted an EV. That’s a 40% increase year-over-year, despite the tax credit disappearing.

Let that sink in. We removed $7,500 from every EV purchase, and more people want them now than before.

This aligns perfectly with the J.D. Power data we reported last week: “Among U.S. shoppers who are in the market for new vehicles, the interest in electric vehicles actually ticked up a bit after the tax credit went away.”

The distinction everyone misses is between stated interest and actual purchases. When October sales collapsed 24% after the credit expired, that wasn’t about demand disappearing. It was about price sensitivity. At $40,000 with a tax credit, EVs competed. At $47,500 without one, many buyers waited. But they’re still interested.

The Real Barrier: 53% Can’t Charge at Home

Here’s the number that should be leading every story about EV adoption: 53% of Americans who want an EV don’t have access to home charging.

According to Deloitte, 77% of U.S. consumers who intend to buy an EV plan to charge at home. But more than half currently lack a dedicated home charger. No amount of tax credits can fix that math.

Compare that to other markets:

China: Only 6% lack home charging access (20% want EVs)
Germany: 20% lack home charging access (16% want EVs)
Japan: 75% lack home charging access (5% want EVs)
United States: 53% lack home charging access (7% want EVs)

Notice the pattern? Japan has the worst home charging access and the lowest EV interest. China has the best home charging access and the highest EV interest. America sits uncomfortably in the middle on both metrics.

This is the infrastructure problem we’ve been documenting for years. It’s not about building more Superchargers along highways. It’s about the 53% of potential EV buyers who live in apartments, condos, or homes without garage access.

America Remains the Outlier

The global comparison is brutal for American EV adoption. Deloitte’s survey shows the U.S. has the highest preference for internal combustion engines among major markets:

United States: 61% ICE, 21% hybrid, 5% PHEV, 7% BEV
Germany: 49% ICE, 14% hybrid, 10% PHEV, 16% BEV
United Kingdom: 44% ICE, 27% hybrid, 11% PHEV, 11% BEV
China: 41% ICE, 19% hybrid, 17% PHEV, 20% BEV
Japan: 41% ICE, 37% hybrid, 6% PHEV, 5% BEV
South Korea: 41% ICE, 27% hybrid, 10% PHEV, 11% BEV

The U.S. is 20 percentage points ahead of the next-highest ICE preference. Meanwhile, China’s EV market share continues climbing toward 60% while American automakers like Ford discuss killing the F-150 Lightning y GM lays off 3,400 EV workers.

Software-Defined Vehicles: America Doesn’t Care

There’s another data point buried in this survey that explains a lot about the American market: only 41% of U.S. car buyers think software-defined vehicles are useful, and one in three says they have no use for one.

Compare that to China and Southeast Asia, where software-defined features generate significant enthusiasm. The disconnect matters because automakers like Rivian and GM have bet heavily on subscription-based software features that American consumers apparently don’t value.

Even more telling: 39% of American consumers won’t pay more for a car with over-the-air update capability. Only 20% of Americans said their car is a more important digital platform than their smartphone, compared to 56% of Chinese buyers.

This helps explain why Rivian and GM continue blocking Apple CarPlay. They’re building software platforms for a market that doesn’t want them, while Chinese competitors are dominating by giving consumers what they actually want.

EVXL’s Take

I’ve been saying for years that the EV tax credit was corporate welfare disguised as climate policy. Now we have the receipts.

When you ask Americans why they’d consider an EV, fuel savings wins. Environmental concerns come second. Government incentives come dead last. The $7,500 credit wasn’t convincing fence-sitters. It was subsidizing purchases that would have happened anyway.

Here’s what I expect: the EV market will stratify. Buyers who can charge at home, who have garages and driveways, will continue adopting EVs based on the actual value proposition: lower fuel costs, less maintenance, better driving experience. The 53% of Americans without home charging will stay on the sidelines until that changes, regardless of what happens with incentives.

The policy implication is clear: if you want to accelerate EV adoption, stop throwing money at point-of-sale incentives and start solving the home charging problem. Every dollar spent on apartment charging infrastructure will do more than $10 in tax credits.

For buyers, the message is simpler: if you have home charging access, EVs make economic sense right now. If you don’t, wait until you do. No tax credit ever made up for the inconvenience of relying on public charging for daily use.

En loan interest deduction that replaced the tax credit saves most buyers about $660 versus the $7,500 they lost. But as this survey proves, that never mattered as much as everyone thought.

What matters is whether you can plug in when you get home. For 53% of Americans, the answer is still no.

Are you part of the 53% without home charging access? How does that affect your EV purchase decision? Let us know in the comments.

Photo credit: BMW