Electricity used by electric vehicles in the United States continues to rise, but the rate of increase has slowed noticeably.

CleanTechnica, citing U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) data, reported on Sept. 30 that power use by U.S. light-duty electric vehicles rose 8 percent in the first half of this year from the second half of 2025. That was a much smaller increase than the 13 to 24 percent half-year growth rate seen in recent years.

The slower growth coincided with a period of declining sales after federal EV tax credits ended. The new clean vehicle tax credit and the qualified commercial clean vehicle tax credit ended on Sept. 30 last year. After that, sales of new electric vehicles in the first half of 2026 fell 19 percent from the previous half. Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) also accounted for 6 percent of new vehicle sales in the first half of this year, down from 7 percent a year earlier.

Overall power consumption is still rising. U.S. light-duty electric vehicles used about 14 billion kWh of electricity in the first half of 2026, more than double the level in the first half of 2023. As EV adoption accumulates, electricity consumed by vehicles on the road continues to rise even if new sales slow.

The figures cover road-going light-duty vehicles with a gross vehicle weight rating of 8,500 pounds (about 3.85 tonnes) or less. They include BEVs and plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs) that charge from the external power grid, but exclude internal combustion vehicles, conventional hybrids and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. As of 2024, electric vehicles accounted for about 2 percent of all registered light-duty vehicles in the United States.

The data are not directly tallied through surveys, but are based on the EIA's estimation model using external sources. The EIA recently finalised the new model and plans to continue publishing related statistics through its Monthly Energy Review and State Energy Data System.