Thousands of people are expected to converge on downtown Los Angeles in celebration this year. Los Angeles Auto Show concludes on Sunday. The event at the Los Angeles Convention Center is one of the largest and oldest auto shows in the country and features hundreds of new vehicles and concept cars, including the latest electric vehicles.
Electric vehicles always feature prominently at the Los Angeles Auto Show, and this year again there were new ones available for purchase in addition to those that automakers are still planning. The show has long leaned on California's reputation as a climate leader to launch the latest in electric technology. This year comes at an important time. The Trump administration ended rebates that lowered the price of electric vehicles, helping the oil industry. It's unclear what effect that will have on sales.
Vehicle electrification is one of the main ways governments, including California, address climate change. The state has committed to achieving 100% decarbonization by 2045 and has prioritized the transition away from combustion engines that generate smog and pollution.
Among the electric vehicles on display this year are the 2026 version of the Nissan Leaf, which now offers an estimated range of 303 miles on a charge, and the Chevy Bolt, which offers an estimated range of 255 miles. The Bolt is returning due to “popular demand,” after being discontinued in 2023, company officials said. Starting retail price for both cars is around $29,000.
New models also debuted at the auto show, including the 2026 Jeep Recon, a Wrangler-style electric vehicle billed by the company as “the only all-electric Trail Rated SUV,” offering 230 miles of range starting at $65,000. The range of the new Hyundai Ioniq 6 N has not yet been announced, but it is expected to reach around 410 miles when the car hits the market early next year.
Luxury electric vehicles on display include the $77,000 Rivian RIS and the $80,000 Lucid Gravity, with estimated ranges of up to 410 and 450 miles, respectively. (Rivian also showed off its upcoming R2, a smaller SUV with a promised price of $45,000 that is expected to offer more than 300 miles of range.)
In addition to canceling rebates on new and used electric vehicles, the Trump administration has moved to block California's historic ban on the sale of gasoline-powered cars, prompting a lawsuit from the state in return.
The administration's actions pushed many consumers to purchase electric vehicles before federal incentives expiredand California reported a record number of zero-emission vehicle sales in the third quarter of 2025: just 126,000, or about 29% of new car sales.
However, headwinds coming from Washington, DC, also appear to be giving some automakers pause. Brands like Acura, Ford and GM have announced plans in recent months to discontinue some electric models and scrap plans for new ones. Climate reporting website Heatmap noted that there was an absence of enthusiasm for electric vehicles in the press events surrounding this year's Los Angeles Auto Show, and that “the fanfare about the electric future was decidedly suppressed.”
In October, the first full month after the federal tax credit was repealed, electric vehicles accounted for just 5.2% of U.S. retail sales of new vehicles, according to consumer insights company JD Power. The figure represented a notable drop from the all-time high of 12.9% in September.
The forecast for November is largely the same, with electric vehicles expected to account for about 6% of domestic auto sales.
Still, many in the industry believe the pause will be little more than a bump in the road.
“The strong will survive, so those that make really good, well-priced electric vehicles will see them recover,” Ed Loh, editor-in-chief of Motor Trends, said in an interview with Fox Business at the Los Angeles Auto Show.
The show also comes as California continues to ramp up its electric vehicle charging network. In September, the state surpassed 200,000 fully public and shared electric vehicle charging ports, an increase of about 20,000 since March, according to the California Energy Commission. There are now more charging ports than gasoline pumps.
Gov. Gavin Newsom also reaffirmed the state's commitment to electric vehicles with a June executive order on reducing vehicle emissions and funding clean manufacturers, among other items.
What's more, the global outlook for electric vehicles remains bright. The International Energy Agency reported 17 million electric car sales worldwide in 2024, an increase of about 25% from the previous year.
Sales in 2025 are expected to exceed 20 million, or more than a quarter of cars sold worldwide.
