The Republican tax and spending package that passed in early July brought an early end to federal EV tax credits, which are worth up to $7,500 for new electric vehicles and up to $4,000 for used ones. The credits end on September 30. Specifically, buyers need to have a binding contract in place by that time — the vehicle itself can be delivered later.

Anybody who was thinking of getting an EV soon-ish suddenly had a four-figure incentive to get one fast.

The result was pretty predictable: Sales of EVs shot up.

"The past couple of weeks — even in the past several days — EV sales just exploded," says Matt Jones, the senior director of industry relations at the auto marketplace TrueCar. "It's been bonkers."

Surveys have shown that many Americans were not even aware the EV tax cre

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