Section 8: What to Expect in the Very Near Future

Introduction

If the last five years of electric vehicle (EV) growth have taught us anything, it’s this: the shift is real, and it is not finished.

EVs are not a passing fad. They are a permanent change in the way we move people and goods. Today’s cars already make the case. The next few years should make them faster to charge, easier to plug in, and available in more shapes and prices. Some of the promises from a few years ago have already landed. Some slipped. This section is about the road immediately ahead, not a wish list.

Supercharger Access and the NACS Standard

In 2023, Tesla said it would open its Supercharger network — the largest fast-charging system in North America — to other EV brands. That kicked off the change.

1.     Automakers adopted Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS) connector, now also the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) J3400 standard.

2.     The Combined Charging System (CCS) versus NACS fight, for new cars in North America, went to NACS.

By 2026, most new EVs sold in North America ship with a native NACS port. Ford, Rivian, Hyundai, Kia, General Motors (GM), and others have models that plug into a Supercharger without an adapter. Older CCS cars still need one. Older public chargers still need one the other way. The plug war for new cars is over. The adapter years are not, until the older cars and the older stalls age out. [1]

What that means on a trip:

1.     One plug for most new cars, and a much larger set of working fast chargers.

2.     Better odds the stall is up, because Superchargers set the reliability bar the other networks are chasing.

3.     Less of the old routine: four apps, a locked gate, and a charger that will not start.

I remember those early road trips. One network and one plug do not make every stop perfect. They do take the fear out of the plan.

IONNA and the Other Fast-Charging Networks

Tesla still has the biggest fast-charging network. It is no longer the only serious one. IONNA is the joint venture formed by GM, Stellantis, Hyundai, Kia, BMW, Honda, Mercedes-Benz, and, from 2024, Toyota. The original aim was 30,000 high-speed charging bays in the United States and Canada. That number is the target, not the count. [2]

The first IONNA site opened in Apex, North Carolina, in December 2024. By the fall of 2026 the network had a little over 180 sites and roughly 1,500 ports, across about 30 states, with both CCS and NACS plugs at the stalls. It had more than doubled its sites since the start of 2026. That is a real network. It is not 30,000 stalls.

What IONNA got right from the start:

1.     Automaker money behind it, not a press release and a pilot site.

2.     A reliability pitch, with staffed sites and a simple pay experience.

3.     NACS and CCS on the same stall, so the plug in your car is not a scavenger hunt.

EVgo, Electrify America, and ChargePoint have spent the same years fixing uptime, adding faster stalls, and rolling out Plug & Charge, where the car and the charger sort out the payment without an app dance. Charging anxiety is smaller than it was. It is not gone. A cross-country trip still rewards a driver who looks at the route. It no longer requires hope.

Cheaper EVs, More Choices

The “coming soon” list from a few years ago needs a rewrite, because some of those cars are in driveways and some never left the rumor stage.

On sale now:

1.     Chevrolet Equinox EV. A compact electric sport utility vehicle (SUV), on sale, with a 2026 starting price around $35,000 before destination and up to 319 miles of range in front-wheel drive.

2.     2026 Nissan Leaf. Reborn as a taller, longer-range car, starting a little above $31,000, with a top range over 300 miles.

3.     2027 Chevrolet Bolt. Back as America’s lowest-priced new EV, starting at $28,995 including destination. GM has also cut the planned production run sharply, from about 150,000 to about 35,000, so it is a real car with a short factory life.

Still ahead, and real:

1.     Slate pickup. A small, basic electric truck priced at $24,950, with an SUV version at $29,950. Customer deliveries are scheduled to begin in late 2026 from the plant in Warsaw, Indiana.

Take off the list:

2.     Tesla’s $25,000 “Model 2.” It was a rumor, then an internal program, then it was dropped. Tesla’s cheapest new car is a Model 3, and that car is not a $25,000 car.

3.     A U.S. Ford Explorer EV and a U.S. Volkswagen ID.2 under $25,000. Those were European stories. They are not cars a North American buyer can order.

Battery prices did what the forecasts said they would, with one important split. BloombergNEF (Bloomberg New Energy Finance) put the average lithium-ion pack at $108 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) in 2025, down 8% from 2024. Packs for battery-electric cars averaged $99/kWh, the second year under $100. In China the average pack was $84/kWh, and price parity with gas cars is already normal there. In the United States, the pack is no longer the whole reason a new EV costs more than the gas car next to it. It is also not yet a matching window sticker on a typical crossover. [3]

The used market is where the affordable EV already lives. Bolts, Leafs, and early crossovers sit under $25,000 in volume. The federal tax credit that used to take another $4,000 off a used EV, and up to $7,500 off a new one, ended for vehicles acquired after September 30, 2025. The price you see is the price, unless a state, a utility, or a dealer still has a discount.

The shape of the fleet is already wider than sedans: electric pickups, delivery vans, taxis, and small city cars. That spread is what makes the shift look permanent, even in a year when U.S. sales share dipped after the credit ended.

Better Batteries, Longer Range, Faster Charging

Battery work has not stopped. It has also not delivered the miracle pack in a normal driveway.

1.     Lithium iron phosphate (LFP) is the chemistry in a lot of affordable cars now. It trades a bit of cold-weather range for cost, durability, and a lower fire risk in ordinary use.

2.     Silicon-rich anodes are showing up in some packs. Solid-state cells are still a later-this-decade story. Toyota, CATL, and QuantumScape have real programs. None of them is the battery in a mass-market 2026 car. [4]

3.     Charging is faster where the car and the stall both support it. Some new models can add well over 100 miles in about 15 minutes. A few can approach 200 miles in that window, in warm weather, on a high-power stall, from a low state of charge. That is not the Bolt experience, and it is not every stall on the highway.

4.     A few luxury and truck models already clear 400 miles. A 600-mile car is a target, not the family crossover.

You will not need 600 miles. I used to think 300 was more than enough, and my bladder usually agrees. Extra range is not about using it every day. It is about not having to stop when you do not want to. For a rural driver, or a long highway day, that margin matters.

A Cleaner Grid, a Smarter Car

An EV gets cleaner as the grid gets cleaner, without the owner doing anything. In 2025, fossil fuels were about 58% of U.S. utility-scale generation. Nuclear was about 18%. Renewables were about 24%. Carbon-free power is a bit over 40%, which is the figure this section used to cite, and it is still the right ballpark. The year was not a straight line. Solar generation rose sharply. Coal generation rose too. The long trend is toward cleaner power. A single year can lean the other way. [5]

The cars are getting more useful as energy equipment, on some models:

1.     Bidirectional charging, vehicle-to-home (V2H) and vehicle-to-grid (V2G), is available on some trucks and a smaller set of cars. It is not on every EV in the lot. Where it is real, the car can carry a house through an outage, within the limits of the battery and the transfer equipment.

2.     Solar panels on the car itself remain a niche idea. They are not a feature of the cars people are buying in volume.

3.     Smarter charge timing is here. A car that waits for the cheap overnight rate, or for a cleaner hour on the grid, is ordinary now.

The interesting change is the two-way part. A car that only takes power is a better car. A car that can also give power back, during a peak hour or a hurricane outage, is part of the house. That is already true for some owners. It will be true for more of them over the next few years. It is not yet the default.

Policy, Mandates, and Market Momentum

The policy picture moved, and not all in one direction.

1.     The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) put real money into battery plants, assembly, and charging. The consumer piece is over. The new, used, and commercial clean-vehicle tax credits ended for vehicles acquired after September 30, 2025.

2.     California’s plan to end sales of new gas cars by 2035, the Advanced Clean Cars II rule, lost its federal waiver in 2025 when Congress disapproved it and the President signed that disapproval. California sued. As of late 2026 the rule is in court, not in force as a national-style mandate. Other states that had copied it are in the same fog.

3.     Europe’s carbon dioxide (CO2) standards are still pushing electric sales. A proposed Automotive Package would soften the 2035 end point. Electric cars were 28% of European sales in 2025. The direction is electric. The exact 2035 rule is not settled.

4.     Several automakers have walked back pledges to be 100% electric by 2030. Treat those old pledges as announcements, not as a delivery schedule.

The sales numbers are the cleaner evidence. Global electric car sales passed 14 million in 2023. They passed 20 million in 2025, about one in four new cars worldwide. The International Energy Agency (IEA) expects about 23 million in 2026, about 28% of global sales. China is near 55%. The United States was just under 10% in 2025, then fell after the credit ended. Through the first half of 2026, EVs were 7.1% of new U.S. light-duty sales. That is a step down from the peak. It is not a return to zero. [6]

Some people still call this an EV mandate. The federal purchase credit is gone, and the California 2035 rule is in court. What is left is the car, the charger, and the running cost. That is a harder test, and it is the honest one.

Conclusion

The next few years will not turn every gas car into an EV. They will keep making the electric car the simpler choice for more drivers: one plug, more fast chargers, a used market under $25,000, and a handful of new cars that finally start near that number.

You do not have to wait for a solid-state battery or a 600-mile range to make the switch. An EV sold today already beats its gas counterpart on efficiency, on tailpipe emissions, and on routine maintenance. The future is not a clean sheet. A lot of it is already in the next lane.

Whether you are already driving electric or still deciding, buckle up. The electric era isn’t coming. It’s here. It is your choice as to whether you remain stuck in the 19th century with a horse-and-buggy way of thinking, or not.

Footnotes

[1] SAE J3400 is the standards name for the NACS connector. Tesla’s 2023 opening of Supercharger access, and later native-port announcements from Ford, GM, Rivian, Hyundai, and others, are the record. Native ports are common on 2025 and 2026 North American EVs. Older CCS cars use an adapter.

[2] IONNA launch, 2023, eight automakers after Toyota joined in 2024. First site: Apex, North Carolina, December 2024. Fall 2026: a little over 180 U.S. sites and roughly 1,500 ports. The 30,000-bay figure is the venture’s target, not the installed count. IONNA

[3] BloombergNEF, battery price survey, December 2025. Average lithium-ion pack $108/kWh. Battery-electric vehicle packs averaged $99/kWh. China average $84/kWh. BloombergNEF

[4] Toyota, CATL, and QuantumScape solid-state and advanced-cell programs remain development and pilot efforts. They are not the pack in a volume 2026 car.

[5] U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), 2025 utility-scale generation: natural gas about 41%, coal about 17%, nuclear about 18%, renewables about 24%. EIA, Electricity in the U.S.

[6] International Energy Agency (IEA), Global EV Outlook 2026. Electric car sales exceeded 20 million in 2025, about one-quarter of new cars. United States share just under 10% in 2025, with a drop after the credit ended. 2026 global sales expected around 23 million. U.S. first-half 2026 share of 7.1% is from Alliance for Automotive Innovation sales data. Federal credit cutoff: IRS.