The US federal EV tax credit expired this year. Coverage afterward described EV sales as having "recovered" in the following months. The month-on-month rise is real. The word "recovery" oversells what it means.

What actually happened first: buyers pulled purchases forward to lock in the incentive before it expired, producing a spike, then a steep drop the month after, a predictable pattern for any incentive deadline.

The "recovery": sales ticked up compared to that post-cliff low point. But compared to pre-expiry levels, or the same months a year earlier, volumes remained well down.

The bottom line: both the spike and the slump were mechanical effects of a deadline, not a verdict on underlying EV demand.