The electric-vehicle tax credit might be dead, but some U.S. automakers had a plan to keep it alive. Well, had. Just before it expired, General Motors announced that it managed to find a clever way to preserve the discounts to customers who lease EVs after Sept. 30: Put the cars into service by making a down payment to the dealerships themselves.
But it turns out some of America’s elected officials don’t take too kindly to workarounds, so now that plan is off the table.
Welcome back to Critical Materials, your daily roundup for all things electric and tech in the automotive space. Also on deck: Ford will pull back on Lightning production, and the federal government threatens to pull back over a billion dollars in EV manufacturing grants from GM and Stellantis. Let’s jump in.
30%: Ford Expected To Idle F-150 Lightning Production
Photo by: Ford
The Rouge Electric Vehicle Center (REVC) will idle F-150 Lightning production for at least a week, according to a memo sent to workers shared with Reuters. And while demand for electric vehicles is expected to drop this week, it’s not the reason Ford is scaling back production.
A late-night fire tore through part of the Novelis aluminum plant in Oswego, New York, last month. The damage was so extensive that a large portion of the plant is expected to remain out of commission into 2026, which means that many automakers—Ford included—are expected to face a supply crunch over the next few months. And because Ford makes its F-Series pickup bodies from aluminum (and because those pickups are one of America’s best-selling vehicles), it must now choose what production to scale back in order to keep cranking out high-margin products at volume.
Unfortunately, the F-150 Lightning will fall victim to the supply crunch, at least until Ford can work out how to mitigate the problem.
The Wall Street Journal covered just how impactful the fire is expected to be for Ford:
Ford is the biggest user of the plant. Its F-150 pickup, the top-selling vehicle in the U.S. and the automaker’s main profit driver, is one of the industry’s biggest users of aluminum. The setback is severe enough that Ford will likely flag potential implications to investors when it discloses quarterly financial results later this month, according to people familiar with the matter.
Ford shares sank in morning trading by more than 7% on news of the potential disruption.
“This represents a serious question for the production of F-150 because that’s the aluminum that comes out of Oswego,” said Kaustubh Chandorkar, an aluminum-industry analyst. Ford switched the F-150’s exterior to aluminum from steel a decade ago.
Confirmation of Ford’s production line shutdown next week was made by Reuters, which viewed a memo written by Dearborn Truck UAW Chairman Nick Kottalis. The memo stated that REVC will be off next week, related to the Novelis fire, but did not address the total anticipated impact on production.
Ford isn’t alone in its reliance on the metal supplier. General Motors, Stellantis, Toyota, and more are all customers. In fact, Novelis supplies nearly half of all sheet metal used by U.S. car makers. However, industry analysts expect that Ford will be hit the hardest out of any automaker with a U.S. production line and is estimated to lose up to a whopping $1 billion from its bottom line.
“We believe this is largely a Ford issue,” wrote Chris McNally, Head of Global Auto and Mobility Research at Evercore ISI, in a note on the matter. McNally went on to estimate that the firm expects Ford to take an earnings hit of between $500 million and $1 billion over the supply issue.
Admittedly, if Ford had to choose between cutting down on the F-150 Lightning and gas models, it makes sense to ramp down on the electric model. Ford’s ICE truck has significantly more sales than its battery-powered variant, not to mention that the sale of EVs are expected to take a dip with the EV tax credit going away.
It’s not clear if the shutdown will extend past a week, nor what Ford expects its total production impact to be. “Novelis is one of several aluminum suppliers to Ford,” said a Ford spokesperson in a statement to the Detroit Free Press. “Since the fire [on Sept. 16th], Ford has been working closely with Novelis, and a full team is dedicated to addressing the situation and exploring all possible alternatives to minimize any potential disruptions.”
60%: GM Backtracks On EV Tax Credit Extension
2027 Chevy Bolt EV
Photo by: Chevrolet
GM has officially changed course on its EV tax credit leasing plan, according to a report from Reuters. The automaker will no longer make good on its plan to pass on the discount to consumers until the end of the year and will instead only foot the bill over the next few weeks.
U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno, a man who managed to build a luxury car dealership empire in Ohio, penned a letter to U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent condemning “certain car companies who wish to continue bilking the U.S. taxpayer.” Here’s a snippet from the letter penned by Moreno:
The intent of [the Big Beautiful Bill] is clear—no credits allowed after September 30, 2025.
To implement this law, on August 21, 2025, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued guidance which provided clarification on the availability of the EV subsidies for taxpayers who enter into a written binding contract and make a downpayment on an eligible “clean vehicle.” This guidance, while well intentioned, is unfortunately being taken advantage of by certain car companies who wish to continue bilking the U.S. taxpayer.
It has come to our attention that certain car companies are gaming this guidance by instructing their captive financial entities to enter into written binding agreements with dealers for electric vehicles, paying a nominal downpayment, to secure the credits on vehicles that may not be leased to the end user for months.
Given this concerning information, we write to request your assistance to close this loophole and address the total violation of Congressional intent by these nefarious actors
In a statement to Reuters, GM confirmed that it would not claim the tax credit after all. Instead, it will self-fund the lease incentives until the end of the month. “GM worked on an extended offer for the benefit of our customers and dealers. After further consideration, we have decided not to claim the tax credit,” said GM. “GM will fund the incentive lease terms through the end of October.”
InsideEVs reached out to Ford to see if it would follow in GM’s footsteps, but Ford did not respond to our request for comment.
While this, uh, creative measure technically aligned with federal guidance, it’s clear that lawmakers weren’t having any of it (politically-charged or otherwise). At least GM’s heart was in the right place. The EV market is expected to slow significantly this quarter and the brand warned that consumers shouldn’t expect “irrational” discounts after the tax credit ended. At least they can still score some decent lease discounts until the end of the month.
90%: U.S. Could Claw Back $1.1 Billion In EV Grants From GM and Stellantis
Photo by: Chevrolet
Nearly $1.1 billion in federal grant funding awarded to General Motors and Stellantis by the U.S. Department of Energy could soon be clawed back by the feds. Both automakers were set to use the funds as a means to retool their factories to support the production of electric vehicles. But now, that money could be ripped away as part of a game of political chess.
According to a report from Automotive News, the rescinding of the grant is part of a larger cancellation of Congressionally-mandated funding set aside for energy and manufacturing projects. In total, $12 billion in grants could be affected on top of an already-announced cancellation of $8 billion for various clean energy-related needs.
Automotive News explains:
The projects are among a list of $12 billion in awards that could be canceled as the partial government shutdown persists.
Among those grants: $500 million awarded to GM to convert Lansing Grand River Assembly in Michigan to build electric vehicles; $335 million for Stellantis to convert the shuttered Belvidere Assembly Plant in Illinois to make midsize electric pickups; and $250 million for Stellantis to convert its Indiana Transmission Plant in Kokomo to produce EV components.
The possible cancellations come a week after the Energy Department announced plans to cancel $7.56 billion in financing for hundreds of energy projects that it said would not provide sufficient returns to taxpayers.
For GM, that includes $500 million earmarked to be used at its Lansing Grand River plant. The funds were to be used as part of the factory’s retooling to build EVs, something GM pledged a total of $1.25 billion to in 2024.
Then there’s Stellantis. It planned to allocate $334.8 million to revive its idled Belvidere plant as part of a $1.5 billion cash infusion. Another $250 million was to be committed to an Indiana transmission plant that would be repurposed to build EV drivetrains.
No final decision has been made so far, but the money on the line threatens a combined estimated 2,900 direct jobs and supports more than 15,000 other workers across the U.S. auto industry.
100%: We’ve Got Some Cheap(ish) EVs Now. Which Are You Choosing?
Photo by: Adam Faris
With the release of the new Chevy Bolt, the lower-cost Nissan Leaf, and Tesla’s Standard models, there are now a number of EVs creeping into what many see as “affordable” territory. If nothing else, at least well below the average transaction price of $49,088 for new cars (and $57,245 for EVs in mid-Q3, according to Cox Automotive.)
The 2026 Nissan Leaf starts at $29,990 with 303 miles of range, a base-trimmed Chevy Bolt LT was announced yesterday for $28,995 with 255 miles of range. Plus, Tesla’s new Model 3 Standard is $36,990 and will offer 321 miles of range. Let’s not forget some other already-established players like the Hyundai Kona (200 miles for $34,470), Chevy Equinox (319 miles for $34,995) and Toyota bZ (236 miles for $34,900).
My point is that our cups runneth over with EVs under $40,000—sure, that’s not cheap, cheap. But it’s a pretty darn different place than we were a decade ago. So if you were in the market for one of these bad boys, which one would you choose? Let me know in the comments.
More EV News We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Insideevs.com?
– The InsideEVs team