The $7,500 federal tax credit that shaped EV shopping trips for three years is gone for good. It ended on September 30, 2025, killed months ahead of its original 2032 sunset date by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. According to the IRS’s own clean vehicle tax credit page, the New Clean Vehicle Credit, the Previously-Owned Clean Vehicle Credit, and the Qualified Commercial Clean Vehicle Credit are “not available for vehicles acquired after Sept. 30, 2025” — full stop, no phase-out, no exceptions beyond vehicles already under a binding contract before the deadline. But federal money was never the only money on the table. A handful of states never leaned on Washington to begin with, and some of those programs are still writing checks worth thousands of dollars.
The gap left behind is real money. The average price paid for a new EV hit $56,126 in July 2026, according to Cox Automotive’s Kelley Blue Book transaction-price report — thousands more than the average gas car. Automakers are already leaning harder on their own discounts to compensate: EV incentive spending still ran at 11.8% of the selling price that month, more than double the 6.4% industry average, even after falling 24.3% year over year as manufacturers pulled back their own lease and cash offers. That’s the backdrop state rebates are now filling into, without a federal floor underneath them.
Colorado Still Pays Up to $6,000 — If You Qualify
Colorado’s Vehicle Exchange Colorado program, run through the state’s Energy Office, pays $6,000 toward a new EV and $4,000 toward a used one. The catch is that it’s targeted, not universal: applicants need household income at or below 80% of their county’s area median, and they have to trade in a vehicle that’s at least 12 years old or fails an emissions test. The state added $9 million on top of its original $5.7 million budget in 2024, pushing two-year funding to roughly $14.7 million, and the Energy Office says applications run on an ongoing basis until that money runs out.
New York Knocks Off Up to $2,000 at the Dealership
New York’s Drive Clean Rebate, administered by NYSERDA, applies right at the point of sale on more than 60 eligible models — no waiting for a tax refund. The amount scales with range: $2,000 for EVs rated above 200 miles, $1,000 for the 40-to-199-mile band, and $500 for anything shorter or for vehicles with an MSRP over $42,000. Governor Hochul’s office added another $30 million to the program during Earth Week 2026, funded through the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. Since 2017, the state says it has issued more than 228,000 of these rebates.
New Jersey Still Stacks Up to $4,000
New Jersey’s Charge Up New Jersey program pays a base $1,500 incentive on EVs priced up to $55,000, and income-verified buyers can add another $2,500 through the Charge Up+ track — $4,000 total, applied at purchase. The program’s FY27 point-of-sale window opens July 1, 2026, for vehicles ordered, purchased, or leased on or after that date, according to the program’s own FAQ page.
California’s Rebate Program Is Actually Closed
Not every state kept its money flowing, and California is the cautionary example. The California Air Resources Board confirms its Clean Vehicle Rebate Project — which paid as much as $7,500 to lower-income buyers before it wound down — “is closed, effective November 8, 2023.” Nearly three years later, it hasn’t reopened, and CARB’s own outcomes page treats it as a completed program rather than a paused one. Californians shopping for an EV today are largely on their own at the state level, which is a reminder that these programs are budget-dependent and can vanish with no federal-style sunset date to warn you.
What This Means If You’re Shopping
The pattern across these four states is that money didn’t disappear when the federal credit did — it just became a lot more local. A $6,000 Colorado rebate and a $2,000 New York rebate aren’t consolation prizes; stacked with utility rebates, some buyers are still looking at savings that rival what the federal credit used to offer. But there’s no longer a baseline everyone can count on. Whether you get $4,000, $2,000, or nothing at all now depends entirely on which state energy office’s rebate portal you happen to be checking, and how much of this year’s budget is still left when you check it.