New Cars Are Getting More Expensive. EVs Are Getting CheaperInsideEVscontact@insideevs.com (Andrei Nedelea)Mon, September 14, 2026 at 2:06 PM UTCAdd us on Google2024 Chevy Blazer EV: Two-Year Owner ReviewAmericans are paying more for new vehicles, but the latest pricing data gives EV shoppers a reason to take another look.U.S. new-vehicle prices rose 1.9% year over year in August, while EV prices fell 2.7%.Tesla helped pull the EV average lower, with its transaction prices down 3.4% year over year.EV prices fell despite smaller incentives, though manufacturer support remained higher than the industry average.Buying a new car in America is an increasingly expensive affair, and the latest numbers suggest that trend isn't stopping. Unless, that is, you're looking for something electric. While prices across the wider market are climbing, the average amount buyers pay for an EV is heading in the opposite direction.Kelley Blue Book published its August pricing report, in which the average new vehicle sold for $50,089, up 1.9% over last year. EVs averaged $54,813, down 2.7% annually and 1.2% from July. EVs remain more expensive than the average new vehicle, by $4,724, but the price gap is narrowing.More On ThisMore And More Americans Are Interested In EVs: StudySales Of Hybrids Are Soaring. That's Bad News For EVs'Largest Supply Disruption In History': High Oil Prices Drove Record EV Sales In 50 CountriesThe Used EV Market Just Got WeirderAdvertisementAdvertisementEV prices fell even though manufacturers spent less on incentives to attract buyers. Those incentives—including cash rebates and subsidized lease or financing deals—averaged 12% of EV transaction prices in August, down from 14.6% a year earlier.Calculated based on August's average prices, that works out to about $6,600 per electric vehicle, or around double what it is across the entire new car market. Substantial rebates are still out there like Lucid offering $10,000 off 2026 Gravity SUVs from its inventory, and sweetening that deal with 0% financing.Tesla helped bring the average EV price down in August. Its average transaction price fell to $52,616 last month, down 3.4% over 2025. Because Tesla still accounts for such a large share of total EV sales in the country, its pricing heavily influences the electric-car average.KBB also notes that prices rose across the five biggest segments. Compact cars rose 2.9% annually and subcompact SUVs rose 2.2%, squeezing shoppers at the affordable end of the market. It also attributes the broader increase partly to a larger share of midsize SUV sales, with the segment becoming the most popular on the market and pushing compact SUVs into the number two spot.AdvertisementAdvertisementFor buyers priced out of the new-car market, stronger used EV demand hints that interest in electric cars and willingness to pay new-car prices don't necessarily coincide; people seem more willing to go electric if it looks like a good deal. It's still an encouraging trend that EV prices are going down while combustion cars are getting more expensive. This might make buyers actually start to compare offers for combustion and electric vehicles rather than simply dismissing the latter as too expensive to consider.