The automotive press is practically aflame with rumors that Ford is replacing its Ford Escape crossover SUV with an electric version, also to be named Escape. That has raised quite a ripple across the esoteric field of car-naming. Normally when a model retires, so does the name. The US auto industry is littered with has-beens, wanna-be’s, never-was, and just plain exhausted cars that retired along with their names. Hmmm….perhaps Ford is sending a not so subtle signal about the future of EV sales in the US…
By now, everyone knows that EV sales cratered last fall, after US President Donald Trump and his Republican majority in Congress engineered the “OBBA” tax bill to eliminate federal tax credits for EVs.
Still, EV sales did not actually stop in their tracks, let alone reverse course. A fresh wave of off-lease, used EVs helped keep the momentum up earlier this year, and some automakers (looking at you, Subaru) stayed on track with plans for new EVs in the US.
Plug-in hybrids also factored in as a sort of gateway drug, with Audi CEO Gernot Döllner among those looking forward to strong EV sales in that category.
EV stakeholders must smell blood in the water as Election Day 2026 approaches. With polls indicating that Trump will lose his chokehold on federal EV policy, news about EVs has been tumbling through the Intertubes over the past several weeks. Among the examples, Slate Auto opened its first showroom in Chicago, and General Motors unveiled its gen-4 EV platform .
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