EVs in the Basement: What they didn’t talk about at the D.C Auto Show

I am sitting in the front row at Policy Day at the Washington, D.C. Auto Show on Jan. 22, listening to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy talk about the lousy mileage electric vehicles get in cold weather. 

EVs are “great in cities,” Duffy says. “Northern Wisconsin, where it’s rural and cold, they don’t work so well, right?”

Well, yes, D.C.’s temperatures had been frozen in the teens and twenties for a couple weeks, and my electric Ioniq 6 was getting about 2 miles per kilowatt-hour, considerably less than the 3 to 6 miles per kilowatt-hour it gets in spring, summer and fall. 

But wait a minute. Gasoline-powered cars also lose mileage in cold weather for various reasons — icy roads, heater use — though primarily because “cold air is denser and increases aerodynamic drag on vehicles, which requires more energy to maintain speed,” according to the AutoZone website.  

Not to mention, according to the Department of Energy, 3 mi./kWh is the equivalent of 101 miles per gallon; so, even in winter, 2 mi./kWh pencils out to 67 mpg.

And isn’t it just as cold in Norway right now — 16 degrees in Oslo as I type this — and in January 94% of all new cars sold in the country were EVs. So, what do they know that we don’t?

Policy Day is the kickoff event for D.C.’s annual auto show and typically features a line-up of federal officials and industry executives, along with a few new model unveilings by the automakers sponsoring the show. In the past, the growing EV market in the United States was a major theme, but this year, with Trump’s war on clean technologies — EVs very much included — I went in curious but skeptical. 

Misinformation was the first, almost predictable red flag. For example, Duffy claimed the Biden administration had overreached its authority by setting the Corporate Average Fuel Economy standard at 60 miles per gallon, creating a de facto EV mandate. A quick fact check shows that the Biden CAFE was 50 mpg by 2031; plus, Duffy, or any Trump official for that matter, should be the last person on earth to talk about executive overreach, given the administration’s ongoing and often illegal power grabs. 

(The latest is the Environmental Protection Agency’s repeal of the 2009 endangerment finding — the basis for federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions — as well as all federal standards for tailpipe emissions from cars and trucks.) 

A good deal of cognitive whiplash followed — like listening to one speaker after another talk about the industry’s focus on affordability, and then seeing Lamborghini unveil its new Temerario, a hybrid sportscar that gets 24 mpg and has a base price of $382,654.

A souped-up model with all the bells and whistles, pictured above, goes for $601,349.

Or, again, hearing multiple speakers promote autonomous, self-driving vehicles — for example, Waymo’s driverless cabs — as a major boost for rider and pedestrian safety, without anyone mentioning that most AVs are EVs.

But the main message from the D.C. auto show was what wasn’t said. The U.S. has become an isolated, secondary market in the global shift to electrified transportation, which is now overwhelmingly led by Chinese automakers. 

The rest of the world is switching to EVs and plug-in hybrids at speed and scale, and it is not only Norway or other industrialized European nations leading the pack. Over the past five years, EV sales have exploded in Nepal, where battery electric and plug-in hybrids make up about 73% of new car sales, most of which are more affordable Chinese models. The country also has plenty of cheap, clean hydropower to help keep those EVs charged. 

Over 50% of new car sales in China itself are EVs, and Chinese exports make up about 65% of EV sales worldwide — again, counting plug-in hybrids and full battery electric — according to figures from industry analyst Ember. 

Ember’s report also shows emerging economies overtaking the West in EV adoption (see chart below). Close to 40% of new car sales in Vietnam were EVs in 2025, with a local automaker, Vinfast, leading the market. In South America, Uruguay is the EV leader, with 27% of new car sales, well ahead of the U.S., where electric and plug-in hybrids made up 10% of new car sales in 2025.

But here’s the kicker: While the loss of federal tax credits has slowed EV adoption in the U.S., mainstream automakers, GM included, are producing smaller, more affordable EVs for overseas markets and not selling them here. 

At GM, Chevy finally reintroduced its popular Bolt EV in the U.S. — with a sticker price under $30,000 for the base model — while producing a smaller electric compact, the Spark, in Brazil, also under $30K. Why? Because in Brazil, the company must compete with Chinese EVs and plug-in hybrids that are best sellers there and in other Latin American markets.

For example, BYD’s Dolphin Mini, with a $22,000 price tag, is now the top-selling EV in Brazil (see below).

Similarly, Hyundai has rolled out smaller, lower-priced EVs in South Korea and Europe, like the $30K Inster, which quickly became the best selling small EV in Germany (which I wrote about here). The company is also getting ready to introduce a smaller model EV in its popular Ioniq line — the Ioniq 3 — which is due out in April in Europe but, again, is not coming to the U.S.

(Recent articles in the automotive press, like this one from autoevolution, report sightings of the Ioniq 3 in Sweden, where Hyundai was testing out its charging in cold weather.)

Back in D.C., Policy Day ended with a sneak peek of the auto show itself, before its official opening the next day, and I spent my time asking representatives from different automakers, like GM and Hyundai, why they are not bringing their smaller, more affordable EVs to the U.S.?

Their off-the-record answers ranged from Trump’s tariffs to the need for more chargers to the regional differences in U.S. auto markets. California drivers are decidedly EV friendly; Midwesterners, not so much. 

I also noticed that while EVs were thin on the show floor — pure EV brands like Lucid and Polestar were relegated to a lower level, beneath the main hall — hybrids were not. The potential end of fuel economy standards in the U.S. might not unleash a new wave of mega-guzzling, mammoth SUVs for the simple reason that Americans want affordable, fuel-efficient cars. 

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, hybrids accounted for 12% of all new car sales in the U.S. in 2025, and were holding strong early in 2026.

Toyota was at the show with a raft of Prius models (starting price, $29,745) and other hybrids, including its RAV4 crossover SUV (starting price $33,350). These cars had plenty of folks checking them out, looking at sticker prices and different premium features, and getting in for a test-sit of the interiors and dashboards.

All of which got me thinking, again, what do Norway and Nepal know that we don’t? How do we leverage Americans’ interest in affordability and fuel efficiency into EV adoption?

The transition to EVs in both Norway and Nepal has been the result of clear policy, backed up by economic incentives and easily available charging; that is, making EVs affordable, efficient and convenient to drive. 

Norway began its transition in the 1990s, with a series of tax cuts and other financial sweeteners for EV owners, such as reduced registration fees and free toll roads and municipal parking. EV chargers were installed on every main road in the country, and many gas stations swapped out some of their pumps for fast chargers.

EV drivers in Norway are rarely more than 30 miles from their next top-up — which, yes, they probably have to do more frequently in cold weather.

The government has started rolling back some of the EV tax cuts and other freebies, and while overall auto sales have dropped, EVs are holding their market share. 

Nepal’s pro-EV policies are part of the nation’s drive to cut its dependence on expensive, imported fossil fuels while developing its hydropower. The government also cut tariffs on imported EVs, making them cheaper than imported gas-powered vehicles, and gave away transformers — critical equipment for grid reliability —  to promote the installation of EV chargers.

(A concise, not-too-wonky explanation of what transformers are and how they work can be found here.)

In other words, transportation electrification involves a major cultural shift, and the places where it has been most successful have smoothed the bumps involved — higher upfront costs, charging availability, cold weather mileage, etc. — with various incentives and policies. You are asking people to change deeply ingrained behavior, beliefs and attitudes, which may only happen once they actually drive EVs and realize they are better — quieter, smoother — less expensive to operate and maintain, and way more fun to drive than gas-powered cars. 

Former President Joe Biden’s EV tax credits and federal funding for fast chargers were intended to create that momentum in the U.S. State policies, like California’s Advanced Clean Cars II rule, required automakers to gradually increase the percentage of EVs in their new model offerings, ultimately phasing out or at least significantly cutting new gas-powered vehicles. 

ACC II had been adopted by 12 other states until it too fell victim to a Republican rollback. California and 10 other states have challenged the rollback in court; at this writing, no decision has been issued. Additional challenges to the repeal of the endangerment finding are expected.

What eventually could push EV affordability and adoption in the U.S. is competitive pressure from China’s sleek, high-tech and lower-priced EVs now zipping into Latin America, Mexico and, soon, Canada.

Our prohibitive, 100% tariffs notwithstanding, these cars have begun sneaking into the U.S., triggering early outbreaks of Chinese EV envy. In one of her last pieces for The Wall Street Journal, tech columnist Joanna Stern reported on her two-week test drive of a Xiaomi SU7 Max, a sleek EV sedan that outsold Tesla’s Model 3 in China last year (see below). 

She loved it; her kids loved it; they all miss it. Her conclusion: “Holy crap, China is winning the digitally enhanced electric-car race.”

Slipping over the border from Mexico, Chinese EVs also have been sighted on highways in Southern California; for example, this TikTok clip of a BYD, one of China’s most popular brands. The poster’s comment: “The U.S. government is afraid to allow [Chinese EVs] into the country because they will finally make U.S. automakers get off their ass and build something the American people deserve.”

U.S. automakers know this. A growing number of consumers know it. It’s past time we started talking about it — and unveiling cool new Chinese EVs — at the D.C. Auto Show.

To end on a slightly more upbeat note — Trump’s anti-EV campaign notwithstanding, Washington, D.C. is among the top markets for EV sales in the country. Battery electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles made up 22.2% of new car registrations in 2025, according to  the Alliance for Automotive Innovation. 

To make the city even more EV-friendly, the D.C. Department of Transportation on Feb. 10 unveiled two new curbside chargers, the first of 16 that will be installed, two in each of the city’s eight wards, as part of a pilot program with the local utility, Pepco (see below).

The chargers are being provided by it’s electric, a Brooklyn-based company installing curbside chargers in a growing number of cities across the country. EV owners will need their own  charging cables to use the Level 2 chargers, but it’s electric will provide free cables to any EV owners who need them. 

Mr. President, you can’t stop the beat.