The federal electric vehicle mandate is dead. And not a moment too soon.

As of September 30, most major automakers are no longer eligible for the $7,500 electric vehicle tax credit. For years, this subsidy masked the true cost of electric vehicles and propped up demand for cars that many Americans never wanted in the first place.

Now, thanks to President Trump’s leadership and the reforms included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the electric vehicle market is finally being forced to stand on its own two wheels, and it’s wobbling.

There was never a single electric vehicle mandate bill. There didn’t have to be. The federal government forced the shift to electric vehicles through a combination of regulatory punishment and fiscal manipulation. The most destructive of these tools was the ratcheting up of Corporate Average Fuel Economy or CAFE standards, which imposed steep penalties on automakers whose fleets didn’t meet arbitrary emissions targets.

Those penalties didn’t just hit companies — they hit drivers, in the form of more expensive gas-powered cars. Even when........

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