The EV price war that’s been heating up over the past year has sent ripple effects into corners of the industry that have nothing to do with electric cars.
As manufacturers compete on price, many are also expanding incentives on ICE (internal combustion) performance trims to keep showroom traffic moving. The result: some of the best lease and finance deals we’ve seen in years on performance sedans, hot hatches, and even a few sports cars that were previously hard to get below MSRP.
There’s also a broader shift happening — several automakers have quietly walked back aggressive all-EV timelines, citing slower-than-expected demand, and are reinvesting in hybrid and combustion performance models in the near term. For enthusiasts, that’s good news: it likely means a longer runway for manual transmissions, naturally aspirated engines, and combustion performance cars than many expected even two years ago. Not every EV player is pulling back, though — newer entrants like the Slate truck are still launching at aggressively low price points.
None of this changes the long-term trajectory toward electrification, but it does mean the next few years could be a genuinely good window to buy — both for EVs at falling prices, and for combustion performance cars that automakers are still actively developing and discounting. InsideEVs tracks pricing moves across the EV market closely if you want to follow the trend in real time.
Worth watching: incentive structures change fast. If you’re shopping, get quotes regularly rather than assuming last month’s deal still stands.