The average price tag on a new electric vehicle in the United States was $55,842 in September 2026, up 2.3% on August and down 3.1% on a year earlier, according to Cox Automotive's EV Market Monitor for September 2026, published on 16 October 2026. That is the average transaction price, meaning what buyers actually paid, not the sticker. The US has no national registration body, so every US figure on Autonergy is an industry estimate and is labelled as one.
How much more than a petrol car?
Cox measures the EV price premium over combustion and hybrid vehicles (it calls them ICE+). In September that premium widened to $5,611 from $4,833 in August. It is still well below the 2025 average premium of $8,665, so the gap between an electric car and a petrol one is narrower than it was a year ago even though it grew this month.
Incentives are shrinking
EV incentives fell to 11% of the transaction price, the lowest share of 2026, averaging about $6,117 per vehicle. In August they were about $6,509, and a year ago they were 14.2% of the price. With the federal tax credit gone and manufacturer discounts easing, the effective cost of an American EV has been drifting up even as the headline average is below last September's.
Why the average rose in September
Cox says the increase was driven largely by higher prices for Tesla's two best-selling models and a richer sales mix. The Model 3 average transaction price rose 8.6% to $53,804, and the Model Y rose 1.3% to $53,052. Stronger sales of pricier models, including the BMW iX3, Cadillac LYRIQ, Kia EV9 and Lucid Gravity, added to the lift. For comparison, Cox's July figure was $56,126, so the average has moved in a narrow $54,000 to $56,000 band through the summer.
What does an electric MPV cost?
Cox does not publish a separate price for electric people carriers (MPVs), and AutoNergy does not either, so there is no honest MPV-only figure here. The nearest benchmark is the all-model average of $55,842. For the two best-selling EVs in the US, the Model 3 averaged $53,804 and the Model Y $53,052 in September 2026.
What a used electric car costs
The average listing price for a used EV was $36,767 in September, down 1.8% on August but up 6.4% on a year ago. The premium over used ICE+ vehicles narrowed to $2,137, or 6.2%, from $2,692 in August. Tesla's average used listing rose 1.4% to $33,470, while prices fell on the Nissan Ariya (down 5.9%), Cadillac LYRIQ (down 3.9%), BMW iX (down 3.8%) and Chevrolet Blazer EV (down 3%).
The sales behind the price
Cox estimates 86,632 new EVs were sold in September, down 0.8% on August and 40.7% on a year earlier, when 146,076 were sold in the last month before the federal credit expired. EVs took a 6.5% share of new-vehicle sales, up from 6.3% in August, because combustion and hybrid sales fell 5%. Cox describing September as 0.8% below August implies August has been revised up from the 78,895 first reported in our August EV sales report. See the live USA dashboard for the monthly series.