EV Tax Credit Bill Seeks $15,000 Revival With No Path to Passage

A bigger credit on paper, and almost no chance of becoming law

A little over a year after Congress ended federal electric-vehicle tax credits, an Ohio Democrat has filed a bill to bring them back at twice the old size. Rep. Greg Landsman introduced the 21st Century Vehicle Choice Act, H.R. 10881, on October 22. It would offer up to $15,000 toward a new EV and up to $8,000 toward a used one, and it would make both credits permanent.11 The bill also raises the credit for charging equipment from 30% to 50% of eligible costs.20 Landsman is pitching it as an affordability measure that gives families more choices and lowers their gas bills.18

The bill is unlikely to pass in its current form. It went to three House committees: Ways and Means, Energy and Commerce, and Natural Resources. As of this week, the official record shows no cosponsors.11 Republicans control both chambers, and President Trump signed the 2025 law that ended the credits.12 Even if Democrats win both chambers in the November 3 midterms, a restoration bill would still face a likely veto. On that math, nothing like this takes effect before 2029.16

The bigger question is what this kind of proposal does to a car market that has already reorganized itself around life without federal subsidies. The answer looks different for new cars than for used ones.

What the bill actually changes

The bill keeps the structure the Inflation Reduction Act gave the credit. The old $7,500 credit had two $3,750 halves, one tied to critical-mineral sourcing and one to battery components. Landsman's bill raises each half to $7,500.11 The used-EV credit would rise from the lesser of $4,000 or 30% of the sale price to the lesser of $8,000 or 60%.18 The bill also removes the expiration dates. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act ended the new and used credits for vehicles acquired after September 30, 2025, and the home-charger credit after June 30, 2026.11

The bill also narrows eligibility. Income caps for the new-EV credit drop by a quarter: to $225,000 for joint filers, $169,000 for heads of household and $112,500 for single filers.11 Each taxpayer can claim the credit only once. Anyone who already received the new-vehicle credit in an earlier year would get nothing.12 Because that limit isn't restricted to claims made after the bill passes, it would effectively shut out everyone who used the credit from 2023 through 2025.11 The bill leaves the North American final-assembly rule, the $55,000 and $80,000 MSRP caps and the foreign-entity restrictions in place. In practice, that means the full $15,000 would reach only a short list of vehicles.1116

How much support does it have?

Reports differ on who is backing the bill, and the gap tells you a lot about how serious the effort is. Several outlets reported that more than 160 House Democrats support it.131519 The Congress.gov record lists no cosponsors.13 One report sorts this out: the 160-plus figure belongs to a separate, broader House package, and Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto has her own Senate measure.12 The best reading is that 160 Democrats support restoring EV incentives in general, while Landsman's bill so far has only Landsman.

Party leaders are also hedging. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is not a cosponsor of the broader bill. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has called for restoring clean-energy credits without specifically mentioning cars.14 Sen. John Hickenlooper said Democrats need to judge how much the credit actually accomplished.13 This is also a rerun. Landsman filed the same bill as H.R. 10046 eleven days before the 2024 election, and it died in committee without a cosponsor.1615 Two pre-election filings with no cosponsors look more like a message than a legislative plan.

New EVs: the discounts are shrinking

The main risk of a big, unreachable number is that it gives buyers a reason to wait. Electrek argues that a "$15,000 off" headline could persuade undecided shoppers to hold off for a year or two. Waiting would gain them nothing: the credit would apply only to vehicles placed in service after the bill becomes law, with no retroactive payments.11 There is precedent for buyers reacting strongly to credit deadlines. The rush before the old credit expired made the third quarter of 2025 the best quarter ever for U.S. EV sales. The month after it ended, Hyundai Ioniq 5 sales fell 63%.16

Pricing data adds to the case against waiting. Kelley Blue Book put the average new-EV transaction price at $55,879 in September, 3% below a year earlier.1 EVs now cost about 11% more than comparable gas models, down from roughly 18% in 2025.9 Automaker discounts on EVs are falling, though. Incentives were 11% of the transaction price in September, the lowest of 2026, compared with 14.2% a year earlier.1 J.D. Power expects average October EV incentives of $7,531, down 42% from a year ago. Incentives on gas and hybrid models, meanwhile, are expected to rise 17.5%.6

Generous deals still exist, mostly on slow-selling models. In October, Polestar is offering $25,000 off the Polestar 3 and 4, Kia $10,000 on the EV9 and Niro EV, and Volkswagen $6,000 on the ID.4.3 These are automakers clearing inventory, not lasting price cuts, and they could disappear quickly once next-model-year stock arrives. A buyer waiting for a 2029 tax credit could miss these discounts and get no credit either.

The broader market isn't getting cheaper. The average new vehicle sold for $50,562 in September, $52 below the record.9 J.D. Power expects the average October monthly payment to hit $823, the highest ever for that month.6 EVs are still a small slice of the market, about 7% of sales by J.D. Power's count.4

Used EVs: a rebound the credit never had

The used market is where the bill's design runs into a changed reality, though the data on the size of that change varies. Measured by actual sale prices, the average used EV went for $32,533 in September, up 9.8% from a year earlier. That is $579 more than the average used gas car, which rose only $90.27 Cox Automotive's listing data puts the average used EV at $36,767, which is $2,137 above comparable gas cars. A year ago, used EVs were the cheaper option.30 Edmunds shows the opposite trend. Its average asking price on September 1 was about 7% lower than on the day the used credit ended.24 The explanation is that Edmunds measures from the spike caused by buyers rushing to beat the deadline.30

What changed most was fuel prices. Used-EV prices were still slipping after the credit ended. Once the Iran war began, they rose 13% through late June, about $3,500 for a typical car.29 Regular gasoline averaged about $4.47 a gallon in late September, up from about $3.12 a year earlier.23 Buyers came anyway. A record 47,862 used EVs sold in September, up 21.2% from a year earlier.27 The cheapest EVs gained the most: models under $20,000 rose 9.4% in the first half of 2026, compared with 5.1% for the market overall.23

This is where the bill's used-car provision looks out of step, in my view. The old used credit paid 30% of the price, up to $4,000, on cars selling for $25,000 or less.23 Doubling that to $8,000 or 60% would put the most money into the low-priced segment where demand is already pushing prices up. When supply is tight, a bigger subsidy usually shows up partly in higher prices rather than lower costs for buyers. Some state programs already go further: Colorado gives income-qualified buyers $6,000 off a used EV priced up to $50,000.23

The smart parts of the bill

The bill isn't all symbolism. The lower income caps and once-per-taxpayer limit respond to the most common complaint about the old credit: that it subsidized wealthy households buying another EV.11 The bill also directs the Department of Energy to study "gasoline super-users," the top 10% of drivers by fuel use. The study would map their 100 most-traveled routes and track charger coverage along them for five years.11 Coltura, which backs the bill, says these drivers spend more than 10% of household income on fuel.16

With gas near $4.50, that targeting idea is more useful than the $15,000 headline. Getting a high-mileage driver out of a gas pickup saves far more fuel than subsidizing a low-mileage commuter's second EV.11 If Democrats want a real EV policy for 2029, that study is a better place to start than doubling every number in the old credit.

For buyers, the practical takeaway is to ignore this bill when deciding whether to buy now. There is no federal credit to claim, there won't be one soon, and current automaker discounts are already shrinking.151