By Scott Etkin
Among the many cuts brought on by the Trump administration’s “Big Beautiful Bill” is the elimination of federal subsidies for new and used electric cars.
How does this change the outlook for electric vehicles (EVs) on the Upper West Side?
There are approximately 32,000 cars registered on the Upper West Side – fewer than one for every three households – and the vast majority of them are gas-powered, according to data from New York State’s Department of Motor Vehicles. Approximately 4% of cars registered in the neighborhood are electric. Diesel-powered cars make up less than 1% of the total.
Over the past few years, however, the number of electric cars on the Upper West Side has steadily risen. From 2019 through 2024, registrations of fully electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids have increased by more than 350% in the neighborhood’s four zip codes, according to a database run by New York State.
Upper West Siders are also more likely to make the transition to an EV compared to the rest of the state. Less than 2% of cars on the road in New York are electric, compared to around 4% on the UWS. Last year also saw a 21% year-over-year increase in EV sales on the UWS, outpacing the 17% increase across New York State overall.
But the passage of the Trump administration’s bill will likely bring a change to this trajectory. On September 30, the federal government will eliminate a $7,500 tax credit for buying or leasing new EVs as well as a $4,000 credit for used EVs. The bill also loosens environmental regulations on gas-powered cars. (Research shows that even though EVs are more carbon-intensive to manufacture than gas-powered cars, they emit less over the lifetime of the vehicle.)
Some states have their own EV incentives, such as New York’s “Drive Clean Rebate,” which offers up to $2,000 off the purchase or lease of new EV models. This subsidy will remain in effect.
Auto industry experts forecast that there will be a spike in EV sales this summer before the federal incentive expires, followed by slower growth than previously expected. “EV sales will continue to expand in the U.S., but the growth trajectory has been curbed,” writes Cox Automotive, which publishes trend reports. “Expectations for total new EV sales in the U.S. in 2025 have been lowered from approximately a 10% share of total sales at the end of the year to an 8.5% share.”
If EV sales on the UWS decline this year, it will be the first time this has happened since 2019, when sales dipped by 6% year-over-year. Back then, new EV registrations hovered around 100 per year in the neighborhood. In 2024, by comparison, there were 477.
While the outlook for passenger EVs has dimmed, one area in the city where EVs have been making gains is in the New York City government’s fleet of cars and trucks.
New York City operates 28,500 vehicles, the most of any U.S. city. Today, most of these vehicles do not run on fossil fuels. “Over 21,000 fleet units now use cleaner alternative fuels including electric, hybrid electric, solar, and biofuel,” according to a report from the Department of Citywide Administrative Services.
Some departments stand out in particular. 74% of the NYC Parks Department’s vehicles run on alternatives to fossil fuels and 45% of the Taxi and Limousine Commission’s fleet has been electrified.
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E-cars remain useless in cold weather, and they take forever to charge unless you have access to industrial service, and even that’s slow.
As configured in 2025, battery powered e-cars are mostly just useful for 100 mile or less trips, so staying within the immediate area of NYC. Certainly don’t try to go to southern Vermont for the day.
We should be looking into vast improvements in the efficiency and cleanliness of internal combustion engines. Both are quite possible. No creepy spyware needed, and the improvements can be installed in cars that are decades old.
I purchased a Tesla 3 in 2019 ($3,500 federal tax credit) for 210-mile trips (each way) to MA. I replaced the tires 1x and had the ball joints replaced under full warranty. During the 5 years I owned the car, it did not require any trips to the shop other than annual inspections.
I traded in the car last year for a new Model 3 (no tax credit), with a 340-mile range. Yes, the range drops some in the winter, so I “fill up” along the way at one of 50K+ Tesla superchargers. The charge is typically about 10 minutes.
My car is well made, quieter, faster and safer than your car and has virtually no maintenance requirements. I received no federal tax credit. Tesla employs 125K highly skilled employees in the US, and, unlike the old “big three” carmakers, they know how to build and sell cars at a profit. They do need to push out their crazy CEO.
Tesla 3s don’t have a reputation for being well assembled. Your experience is outlier.
That charging time of 10 minutes (with a super charger): How “empty” was the battery, and how “full” was the battery after charging?
Tesla Motors DOES NOT make its small profits from selling e-cars, it makes it’s tiny annual profits from selling carbon credits in California to other auto makers.
Ford and GM both make better e-cars/trucks than Tesla. So do BMW and various Asian automakers, some of which have US factories.
You should not have had to replace ball joints unless you’d driven more than 100,000 miles.
Is your current Tesla the dual motor version?
You didn’t address my point about creepy, + utterly unnecessary, spyware and Tesla Motors vehicles.
Ask any Tesla owner and they will tell you how much they love their car. Continue doing your misinformed hating thing while I enjoy the best car ever.
James,
Nothing I’ve said is inaccurate or misinformed. Some of the problems with Teslas are an issue will all current e-cars. But some of the troubles are Tesla Motors specific.
That you are unaware of the many Tesla failures is not my fault.
Some Tesla problems I didn’t mention:
“self driving” disasters, incredibly unsafe factories.
We’re on our second EV (got a COVID lease deal and liked it so much we bought one after the term was up). We regularly make round trips to eastern Long Island (just under 200 miles total round trip). The worst case scenario we’ve had was when it was below freezing with a consistent 20-30 mph headwind. We still made it with around 20% remaining.
Eastern LI, doesn’t usually get real cold. Try Montreal, Augusta Maine, Minneapolis, Buffalo.
So they’re ok for 90% of the country.
QED.
Minnesota, Montana, Vermont, Maine, upstate NY from the Albany area north: E-cars (not just Teslas) aren’t super useful, unless you’re gonna stay within 100 miles of a fast charger.
OK, I amend my statement. By your reckoning they’re ok in well over 90% of the country.
Just. Like. 2. Wheel. Drive. Cars.
You have an odd definition of 90 percent. What you may mean is were most of the population lives, provided you remain within 100 miles of a fast charger.
“…battery powered e-cars are mostly just useful for 100 mile or less trips…”
Well, no. Not even close. The ten most popular EVs in the US all offer versions with 300+ miles of range. Two (the Tesla Model 3 Long Range and the Rivian R1S) have a range of over 400 miles.
“…they take forever to charge…”
Well, no again. On a 320kW DC charger, the Porsche Taycan Turbo GT can add 190 miles of range in ten minutes. Typical charging time (from 10% to 80%) for EVs sold in the US that can use a 350kW DC charger is around 20 minutes.
Finally, can you give examples of the “vast improvements” in internal combustion engine technology that “can be installed in cars that are decades old”?
They have that range above 15 degrees F,
News to me that fast chargers are anywhere near that fast. It’s more like an hour.
No auto company makes $ on EVs without massive government subsidies. If the subsidies disappear, so will EVs.
Danny, please step away from the political dribble and ask an ev owner their view. I own a gas and an EV. The EVs are just better cars. Period. Even without subsidies, the industry is going to go to EV
The EVs aren’t better in cold weather, they aren’t safe in a fire because of the lithium ion batteries.
Teslas in particular are built badly and full of spyware.
First, this isn’t exactly germane to the comment I was responding to, but whatever.
Second, EV manufacturers don’t yet enjoy the same economies of scale that manufacturers of gas-powered vehicles do. The fact that they’re competitive in cost of ownership( even with the subsidy) when they’re only manufacturing approximately 5% as many vehicles as the rest of the industry is pretty good. If you’d been around 120 years ago, you’d probably have been whining about how gas-powered vehicles can’t compete with horses and will soon disappear.
Third: ” If the subsidies disappear, so will EVs.” I’m not a physicist or anything like that, so take this with a gran of salt, but I’m like 99% sure that even if the subsidies are discontinued, the actual vehicles they helped support the purchase of will continue to exist. Are you really thinking they’ll just disappear? What if there are passengers inside them? Do they disappear also?
Green new SCAM
A scam, not especially green, given the use of cobalt.
Wow a topic Jay and I agree on.
It’s not just Trump’s bill that clouds the outlook, it’s also Transportation Alternatives who have fought every effort to bring sensible car ownership to the UWS. So now, instead of making the UWS prepared for the “Green Revolution,” we have bupkis, in the name of everyone jumping on a (now overpriced, Lyft-owned) bicycle. Thanks for the shortsightedness.
came here to upvote the complaint about the gradual decline in quality of citibike/lyft, coupled with their non-stop increases in pricing. terrible.
Meanwhile NY pols are trying to get us to give up cars altogether and rely solely on public transportation. Let’s pick one already!
Likely due to Musk Derangement Syndrome
In the 1930s Jews understood that they shouldn’t buy Ford cars. And for the same reason folk who believe in our constitutional values can spend their money on Musk’s competitors.
Musk amplifies lies daily on his forums, while flouting numerous laws (he’s been fined by the FAA, the SEC, the NTSB and enjoined by the NLRB). He’s advocated for the proposition that a president can unilaterally overrule laws. He’s pushed for Ukraine surrender to Putin, called faithful government employees criminals, and alleged that any spending he doesn’t like is ‘fraud,’ or ‘waste,’ just because he doesn’t like it.
As in the 30s with Ford you don’t put money in the pocket of someone who will use it against your values and interests.
Deciding not to buy cars from a guy who throws out Seig Heils and spouts antisemitism while doing his best to hurt The United States and beyond through the unnecessary and unwarranted dismantling of our institutions using DOGE is a pretty sane decision.
I’ll buy a car built by non-fascists, thanks.
Clever
Most of the Lincoln Towers buildings now have an electric charger for every parking spot. The Chinese are making some incredible electric cars. They’re so good that there are 100% tariffs on them cuz if they were allowed in it would be the end of Tesla and the US auto industry.
Those Chinese EVs are insane. They are doing backflips over the ones available in the US. Miles ahead in technology advancement. Even the President of Ford didn’t want to give his up.. China is so far advanced in most tech these days. And we are going to fall further behind.
Taxi and Limousine Commission’s fleet is electrified only because they dont give you a choice. The choice has been taken away!!!!!!
If you want to register car as tls car and drive as a taxi driver in the city the only car you are able to register is electric car.
Dont blame President Trump. He never said that you dont have a choice.
I wont discuss “greenery” of electric cars. Its all said in that matter already.
Trump bringing back pollution and noise again.
I’m sad too. Wish Biden was still around to “end fossil fuels” once and for all, while investing zero in nuclear, so we can go back to fighting it out in the middle of Broadway for a scrap of bread.
But hey, all in peace and quiet, so there’s the upside of that!
What’s this “go back”?
And did any one bother to notice that the electricity to charge them is coming from coal fired plants in the Midwest?
Not to mention the tons or ore that needs to be strip-mined to get the Lithium for the battery.
For an average 1,000-pound vehicle battery, 500,000 of ore and other materials must be mined and processed,
Not mention that after a couple of years they don’t hold a charge, think your cell phone, and need to be replaced.
They are considered to be highly toxic waste by the EPA etc and an extreme fire hazrad
Coal has gone from generating 43% of our electricity to 16% in under 20 years and even so a single coal plant generating electricity for 100,000 cars creates WAY less pollution than 100,000 separate gas burning cars. WAY LESS.
Colbalt is far more toxic than lithium.
I get cell phones with replaceable batteries.
Right, lithium ion batteries are extremely dangerous in a fire, much more so than petrol, since they self oxidize. Lithium iron (also ferrous) phosphate batteries are safe in a fire, and don’t use cobalt. They last much longer, but no, they’re still no good in cold weather and take a long time to charge.
Unless I’m overlooking it, there’s no explanation for “BEV” and PHEV.”
A number of scientific – academic studies have looked at the milage claims of EV, including SUV and pickup truck models.
Add say four passengers and luggage to an EV SUV or pickup truck and your milage will drop by over half.
In the port of LA, by law, trucks must be EV, but they cannot last entire 8-hour shift.
So they have over a doz huge diesel-powered charges where they swap out the trucks repeatedly, over a ship unloading. The state leg has interestingly exempted the use of these
indefinity
I’m not happy about the EMFs…..
Don’t use a cell phone and move out a microwave communications cluster like NYC.
Or do you mean electro motive forces?
I’ live on UWS and am very happy with my EV. Ioniq 5 – great mileage – 300miles in the summer, 220 or so if it’s 20 degrees. Still enough to get to/from weekend home to the UWS in the winter. Plenty of zip when needed, quiet and low maintenance. Mostly charged from my solar panels upstate so no pollution – especially not in the crowded city. Saves time by avoiding trips to the gas station – when stopping at a fast charger on long trips a few times a year it does take 20-25 minutes but that’s nothing in comparison to avoiding the weekly stop my gas car requires. I picked it up used for < $28k and put 13k miles on it so far paying less than $200 for electricity and nothing in the shop as of yet.
you are focused on the wrong thing. the thing to focus on is the number of chargers and the availability of the chargers. level 2 chargers like these can take hours to charge a car and once the car is fully charged the car will probably remain parked blocking the charger for others to use. figuring out how to get the spaces opened after charging is the issue. the solution is to add an high per minute charge to cars that are charged and remain plugged in.