As part of the New York City Climate Week program, I had the opportunity to share key industry insights with attendees on the state of the EV market. It was a chance to highlight the state of the market and discuss the challenges and opportunities EVs are currently facing.

This year, I posed a key question to the audience: How do you respond when the unthinkable has happened?

I framed the question around the remarkable New York Knicks' Championship run. As a Brooklyn Nets fan, that experience was tortuous, exhausting, and yes, unthinkable. But after a major series of events happens that you had little control over, what is the best way to respond?

The EV market has faced its set of ‘unthinkable moments’ over the past few years. This has included the pullback of federal policies, including the rollback of fuel economy standards, expiration of the clean car tax credits, and freezing of federal funding for charging stations. We’ve also seen automakers change strategies by delaying models and EV investments, which harms the supply side of the market and leaves consumers with fewer options.

Resiliency as a response to the policy pullbacks

I’d argue the proper way to respond to these challenges is with resilience—the ability to adjust, adapt, and move forward. By reacting to these challenges forcefully and homing in on the key issues around electrification - mainly addressing issues like range and charging anxiety, upfront cost, and questions around battery longevity - the U.S. EV market of the future can be better than the one that exists today.

The good news is that many in the EV industry are working to address these core challenges, and it is worth highlighting five areas of resiliency in the U.S. EV market this year.

A focus on affordability

As the price of many parts of the economy has risen (such as food costs, electricity prices, fuel, healthcare), there has been increased conversation on how to aid consumers and bring down costs. According to data from Kelley Blue Book, the average price of a new passenger vehicle hit $50,089 last month. This is a far cry from the average transaction price of around $33,000 in 2015, according to data shared by Edmunds.

While EVs have historically been more expensive than the average new car, the gap has narrowed significantly in recent years. In fact, the top five-selling EVs in 2025 all had starting prices below the average new vehicle cost in the United States.

And more affordable EVs are on the way. Rivian’s R2, which launched this past June, will release more affordable trims in the year ahead, including one at around $45,000. More vehicles are also coming to the U.S. market, including Kia’s EV3, Slate’s truck, and Ford’s Fathom, all priced in the mid-$25,000 to $35,000 range. Future models aimed at the mass market by Lucid, GM, Hyundai, and others are expected in the years ahead.

But that’s not all. The used EV market has seen increased attention and EV sales. According to data from Cox Automotive, average monthly used EV sales for the first half of 2026 were up 72%, compared to 1H 2024.

Used EVs offer an entry point for millions of customers who want to go electric and want to avoid the higher price point of a brand new vehicle. In general, the used car market is about twice as large as new car sales in the U.S., meaning many consumers experience new-car technology through used-car purchases. Plus, both used and new EVs are able to save costs on fueling during this period of high prices, through the lower-cost of EV charging.

The growth of the public charging network

Another area of resiliency has been the growth of the public charging network. Over the past five years, we’ve seen the U.S. public charging network grow from 100,000 public connectors to more than 250,000 connectors as of 1H 2026. That’s more than 2.5x growth in network size. This is important given consumer concerns around both range anxiety and charging anxiety - meaning the ability to travel far and also find a reliable (and speedy) charger.

Thanks to the efforts of many companies in the fast-charging space, we’ve seen concerns around the EV road trip lessen in the last year. We’ve also seen the establishment of companies focused specifically on curbside and home charging, where many consumers will park and charge their EVs. It will take continued work and consumer education to solidify these network gains, but the industry is moving in the right direction.

The rise of commercial EVs

Often, the focus and attention on EVs in the U.S. has been around the passenger vehicle market. But what’s so exciting about the growth of the EV and battery industry is that it can apply to vehicles of different sizes and purposes.

Enter the commercial EV era, a major industry focus, with many events at this year’s Climate Week NYC. This fall, the U.S. will see the rollout of the Tesla Semi, a much-anticipated class 8 truck that may disrupt a commercial market that sells around 200,000 units a year. Other OEMs, like Rivian, have found success by deploying light-duty commercial vehicles, including over 40,000 vans used by Amazon drivers across the country. Commercial vehicles are often broken down by vehicle weight; for reference, BloombergNEF denotes medium-duty commercial vehicles in the U.S. as class 3 - 6, while heavy-duty are considered class 7-8, over 33,000 pounds.

We are still in the early stages of commercial EV sales here in the U.S., and even globally. Sales of electric vans and buses were only in the hundreds of units sold a few years ago, but thanks to the work of the private sector, they’ve risen to thousands of unit sales over the past three years. Deploying more commercial EVs can help companies save money in this era of high diesel prices, give drivers a comfortable cabin to do their job, and offer a quieter alternative for residents who have them pass by.

Battery longevity is becoming more apparent

One of the other consumer questions about purchasing an EV is whether or not an EV battery will hold up over the long term.

The good news is that the data is outpacing any pessimistic expectations. According to Recurrent, EVs are retaining around 97% of their EV battery range after three years – and 95% of range after five years. Recurrent also has a lot of specialized data highlighting how far EVs can go, and how different models perform over time - as well as during different seasons (including winter weather).

For the EV market to reach its next phase, we have to keep highlighting this information as it impacts not only the willingness to purchase an EV but is very much a part of the conversation around the residual value of used EVs. One could argue that if batteries hold up over the long term, they may be a better value proposition than vehicles of other drivetrains.

The rise of ride-hailing electrification

Similar to the increased use of commercial EVs, we’ve also seen resilience in select applications of passenger EVs in the U.S. and across the world. Ride-hailing electrification has been one such bright spot.

According to data provided by Uber, we’ve seen the share of vehicle miles traveled by drivers increase from less than 5% in Europe and 1% in the United States back in Q1 2021, to around 18% and 10% respectively in Q1 2026. This is an impressive ramp-up, given that ride-hail drivers are very high-mileage users. Some data suggests that these drivers can travel more than 40,000 miles each year, compared to the average U.S. driver who only travels around 13,000 miles each year.

Ride-hailing electrification offers major benefits in a total cost of ownership analysis, including lower fueling costs (via electricity) and lower maintenance and operating costs. This has to be balanced with the downtime needed to refuel a vehicle. Still, each mile driven offers real savings compared to the use of a gas car.

Moving forward with these opportunities in mind

Building on these areas of resiliency won’t only help today’s EV drivers, but prime the market for future EV owners. As the recent polling data we’ve highlighted suggests, the divide in the U.S. moving forward is generational, not political. 75% of drivers surveyed under the age of 35 think that they will own or lease an EV within five years. And around 50% of all surveyed - across all age groups - believe that to be the case for them as well.

As we head into the fall, let’s focus on moving with resiliency and tackle these challenges. Together, we can make a better EV market regardless of the policy setbacks over the past year. Today’s owners, and tomorrow’s potential customers, will thank the industry for it.