Current Climate brings you the latest news about the business of sustainability every Monday. Sign up to get it in your inbox.

W elcome back to Current Climate . The U.S. sets the pace in many areas of the global economy, but when it comes to electric vehicles, the world’s largest economy is stuck in reverse. The elimination of federal EV rebates is a big reason for that, but high purchase prices and limited charging infrastructure are even greater hurdles compared to market conditions in China and Europe.

Global EV sales, including plug-in hybrids, are up 3% to 15.5 million units this year through September, with China accounting for more than half of that volume, according to market data from Benchmark Mineral Intelligence . And though China slowed considerably from a year ago, also owing to the loss of government subsidies and a weaker economy, sales in Europe are booming, up 30% this year. By contrast, EV sales in the U.S. and Canada are down 24% to just 1.2 million units in the first three quarters of 2026.

A key driver in Europe and other global markets is spiking fuel prices caused by the ongoing U.S. conflict with Iran. While American drivers are feeling the same pain at the pump, unlike consumers in Europe, Southeast Asia, and Australia, they lack access to highly affordable Chinese EVs, many of which sell for under $25,000.

When it comes to electrics, “affordability is driving every conversation on dealer lots right now,” said Jessie Dosanjh, chairman of the California New Car Dealers Association. “Transaction prices are high, interest rates are still elevated, and consumers are being careful about how they spend.”

Even in California, the nation's largest EV market, sales in the segment are down 26% so far this year.

Lower-priced electrics are slowly beginning to arrive at U.S. dealerships, including the new Kia EV3 that starts below $30,000. GM’s Chevy Bolt, Hyundai’s Ioniq 5, and Toyota’s bZ also retail for less than $40,000. Next year, Ford plans to roll out the Fathom—a small battery-powered pickup starting under $30,000—alongside the utilitarian Slate truck, priced at $25,000.

Hopefully, these models will help reverse the U.S. slump. The longer the country remains an also-ran in the global EV space, the greater the threat to the long-term health of automakers like General Motors and Ford, which have yet to prove they can compete at home with Tesla, let alone globally against Chinese giants like BYD, Geely, SAIC, and Xiaomi. That gap may not concern U.S. consumers who favor large gasoline-powered pickups and SUVs, but as those vehicles become increasingly expensive to buy and fuel worldwide, Chinese brands are seizing incredible growth opportunities.

Can Infrastructure Investment Be Used To Tackle Climate Change?

Infrastructure investment, climate change and biodiversity loss might seem unconnected, but there are growing demands for them to be linked and addressed together.

A new report by the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank highlights how infrastructure investment can help tackle the interconnected challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss and growing threats to human health.

The study says it is important to recognize how human well-being, economic resilience, and development outcomes increasingly depend on the health of natural and climate systems. And it argues infrastructure should not be seen as isolated assets, but rather as a “systemic lever” linking ecosystem protection, climate adaptation and mitigation, and population health.

It calls for more nature-positive infrastructure, which treats ecosystems such as forests, wetlands, and watersheds, as well as more climate-adaptive and climate-mitigating infrastructure, which reduces emissions and climate risks.

Chargepoint President and CEO Rick Wilmer on changes in the U.S. EV market and charging demand

When it comes to electric cars and commercial trucks, is the U.S. falling behind the rest of the world?

I think there are reasons to be concerned. The thing that makes the U.S. different than Europe is just the sheer size of the country. The driving distances are longer, especially if you're going away on vacation or something like that, which changes the appetite for an EV that may not be able to do the full range. On one hand, Europe is pulling ahead and China's definitely ahead. I was there about four or five months ago and it was unbelievable, the variety of EVs on the road and the quality and selection.

But there are reasons to be optimistic. I think a lot of the big auto OEM write-downs, the multi-billion dollar charges they took on their EV initiatives, that got a lot of press, but a lot of other things were happening that I think give us optimism.

One, which I'm sure this will translate to North America, is that some of the best-selling cars in Europe are also some of the least expensive cars. VW announced some new lower-cost models, I think sub-40,000 euros and they're sold out for nine months. And they're moving factory workers from ICE vehicles over to electric vehicles. One thing we just haven't had here in the U.S. is a cost-effective vehicle.

Everything has been a premium vehicle serving, I'll loosely say, the Tesla buyer; a market that was largely saturated by Tesla. … But now you've got the new Ford platform that's been announced at sub-$30,000, and of course it's a pickup truck, which Americans love. And then you've got the new Slate truck coming from a startup funded by Jeff Bezos, which is also sub $30,000. I'm very anxious to see how those vehicles do when they launch.

Your revenue is growing. What changes are driving that?

What we've seen, especially with gas prices staying high on the passenger-vehicle side, is a ton of plug-ins are now plugging in. Now they look at the fuel price and say: “Shoot, do I go fill up my tank at the gas station or do I go plug in and fill up my battery?” We've seen a big uptick in utilization on our chargers. People have clearly figured out that driving a plug-in hybrid with electricity is going to save money versus gas.

There’s also more business from people getting used EVs. The used EV market is on fire. There's a lot of used product coming into the second-hand market that is coming off lease, and that's going to get bigger next year and even bigger in 2028. And the prices are going up because the demand is so strong. I think you can get a used EV at a decent price parity with the equivalent gas vehicle, same type of car. And with gas prices being so high, I think that's been the big demand driver that we've seen for EV adoption. It's really in the used car market.

U.S. clean energy set to reach new highs as tax-credit cliff looms ( Bloomberg )

American Electric Power investing $4 billion in fuel cell project to supply energy for Google ( Wall Street Journal )

VW, Ford and Tesla batteries linked to destructive deforestation of indigenous lands in Indonesia ( The Guardian )

Trump just effectively killed a popular solar energy program for American farmers ( Grist )