EIA: light-duty EV electricity use grew 8% in 1H26 after 13–24% half-years

Light-duty electric vehicles in the United States consumed 8% more electricity in the first six months of 2026 than in the second half of 2025, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said on September 30, 2026, down from the 13–24% growth it recorded in six-month periods in recent years. EIA puts the total at nearly 14 billion kilowatthours for the first half of 2026, more than double the first half of 2023. The figures are modeled estimates for on-road light-duty vehicles from its Monthly Energy Review.

EIA says the slowing growth followed a decline in sales after federal tax credits expired in September 2025. The New Clean Vehicle Credit and the Qualified Commercial Clean Vehicle Credit ended on September 30, 2025, and, per the item, new electric vehicle sales in the first half of 2026 were down 19% compared with the second half of 2025. It gives no source for the sales figure; EIA's July 27, 2026 analysis, drawing on Omdia estimates, put battery electric vehicles at 6% of new vehicle sales in the first six months of 2026, down from 7% in the same period of 2025. The IRS says the New Clean Vehicle Credit is not available for vehicles acquired after September 30, 2025.

The monthly series behind the estimate, table 7.6 of the Monthly Energy Review, begins in January 2018, and June 2026, at 2,469 million kWh, is its highest month. By our addition of its monthly values, the first half of 2026 totals 13,668 million kWh against 12,640 million in the second half of 2025, up 8.1%. EIA notes that the estimates cover battery electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles that draw power from the grid, exclude internal combustion, hybrid and fuel cell vehicles, and come from a model based on external data sources rather than its surveys.

Rooftop solar had its own post-credit drop: after the Section 25D credit's December 31, 2025 placed-in-service cutoff, installations fell 12% year over year in Q2 2026, and the SEIA and Wood Mackenzie report says interconnection data now reflects the impact of that credit's elimination for customer-owned systems.