From the first day of his second administration, President Donald Trump has been taking aim at programs that promote the adoption of electric vehicles.

He directed his administration to revoke a waiver that allows California and more than a dozen other states to require car companies to sell an increasing number of EVs every year. 

The Environmental Protection Agency under Trump is also “reconsidering” tailpipe emissions regulations that encourage automakers to build more EVs.

For now, those rules are still standing. So is another program that’s more familiar to consumers: a tax credit of up to $7,500 for certain new EV models, and up to $4,000 for many used EVs.

Taking those credits away could have implications for car buyers, sellers and manufacturers.

Jon Witt of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, had been thinking about buying an electric vehicle for months. When Trump was re-elected last November, he sped things up.

Witt really wanted to get that federal tax credit for his new car, and given the way Trump derided EVs on the campaign trail, he wasn’t sure the tax break would stick around.

“I just didn't know what would happen,” he said. “I didn't know if [the Trump administration] would just tell the IRS, ‘Hey, anyone request it? Just don't process it.’ I don’t know if they were gonna do that.”

So after extensive research — Witt’s day job is as a data scientist at a company that helps consumers buy EVs —  he took the leap two days before Inauguration Day, driving two hours to a dealership to buy a used 2023 Kia EV6.

“They have a guy in the back who does the tax credit, and he came over and said, ‘Does this look good to you?’ I said, ‘Yep.’ He said, ‘Sign here.’ Bada bing bada boom, the tax credit was included in the price.”

So, Witt got $4,000 off the price of his EV. After trading in his old Subaru, Witt said he paid just $2,500 for his Kia, and he’s crazy about the car.

“Yeah, I am over the moon. I love telling people about it,” he said.

But it turns out, he didn’t need to rush to get the credit. Three months later, it’s still available.

That’s “a little bit surprising, but not not terribly surprising,” said John Higham, a board member of the Electric Vehicle Association, a volunteer advocacy group that promotes EV adoption.

“The tax credit is enshrined in law, and only Congress can change that law,” Higham said.

Republicans in Congress are pushing to make that change. U.S. Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming introduced a bill in February that would repeal the tax credit. 

In a press release, Barrasso said his constituents “should not foot the bill for expensive electric cars they don’t want and can’t afford.” The bill is in committee.

Republicans in the House have taken aim at the credits, too, as part of their efforts to extend President Trump’s first term tax cuts.

But Higham is holding out some hope that the credit may survive all that.

“The way the tax credit is structured, it's actually helping, I hate to be political, but just helping red districts more than blue districts,” he said.

Here’s why: The Biden administration structured the credits to boost domestic manufacturing. To qualify for the tax credit, new EVs and a portion of their batteries need to be assembled in North America. So carmakers built more EV assembly lines and battery plants in the U.S., mostly in Republican districts.

Ingrid Malmgren, senior policy director at Plug In America, another EV advocacy group, argues members of Congress will have to decide whether they’ll roll back the EV tax credit, “or whether they're going to really represent their constituents and make sure that they have jobs in their district and are working to really boost the economy of their district.”

The federal tax credits are not the only financial incentive that’s available to would-be EV buyers. Some states offer incentives of their own, and carmakers have been offering discounts.

Jeff Jackson, president of Gee Automotive, a chain of 40 dealerships across the western U.S., said he’s not seeing the same rapid growth in EV sales he was a few years ago, “but even the level of sales we are seeing is supported, you know, heavily by those three factors.”

Right now, at his dealerships in EV-friendly Washington state, for example, electric vehicles make up about 16% of sales, he said.

But as of next year, the state is going to require at least 35% of new car sales to be zero-emission, in line with California’s emissions rules. And if those rules stay in place but the federal tax credit goes away, “I think 35% is already effectively an impossibility, but it's just going to make it that much harder,” Jackson said.

Exactly how tough that becomes is up to Congress.