October 2, 2025 - Hyundai Cuts $10K From Ioniq 5

This is the Telemetry Transportation Daily for October 2, 2025, and I'm Sam Abuelsamid, Vice President of Market Research for Telemetry.  

The U.S. federal tax credits for electric vehicle purchases are officially dead. But automakers are making moves to try to maintain some of the sales momentum that built up in the third quarter as consumers rushed to buy EVs before the incentives went away. GM saw EV sales more than double compared to last year, with over 66,500 units delivered in the quarter. Ford EV sales were up more than 30% to over 30,600, and Hyundai also had a 100% increase to about 28,000 units. Yesterday, we reported that GM and Ford's financial units had purchased most of the remaining inventory from dealers at the end of September so that they could be leased by dealers with the tax credit factored into the monthly payment. 

Hyundai is going even further by offering its own $7,500 incentive on remaining model year 2025 Ioniq 5s through the end of October. For 2026 model year cars, Hyundai has repriced the entire range, taking down the average price by $9,155. The base standard range rear-wheel-drive Ioniq 5 now starts at $35,000 before the delivery charge of $1,600. The mid-trim SEL with AWD and the extended range battery has been cut by $9,800 and starts at $43,300, while the top-end Limited trim goes for $48,975.  

Fortunately, Hyundai has done this without major decontenting of any of the models, making these a much better value than they were even with the former tax breaks. 

After cutting the price of its electric Solterra last year, Subaru also announced this week that it is keeping the same starting price of $38,495 despite the substantial improvements to that car. The Solterra comes standard with dual motor all-wheel drive and 338 horsepower now, over 100 horsepower more than last year and more range with 288 miles, as well as faster charging and an improved interior design. While Ford CEO Jim Farley predicted that EV sales would fall by half in the final quarter of the year, with moves like this, the situation might not be quite so dire. 

Thanks for listening.