The federal tax credit for purchasing new electric vehicles (EVs) expired on October 1, 2025 — and dealers are already feeling the squeeze. EVs dropped from 12% of the U.S. car market in September to roughly 5% in October. That’s a steep decline in front-end opportunity, especially for stores that have traditionally focused on EVs.
The question becomes how to replace that lost revenue with a new source.
With BizzyCar, the answer is already waiting in your owner database. Our unified recall and service platform can help you capture more revenue from previous customers — especially those who are holding onto their vehicles longer.
We break down why this shift is happening and how your service operations can turn it into a growth opportunity.
The tax credit’s expiration removed a major incentive for new EV buyers. Carmakers have started adding discounts of their own to replace the lost credit, but the market is in a reset phase as implementation rolls out.
At the same time, EV prices remain high, charging infrastructure remains inconsistent, and some models have faced highly visible recall campaigns. This adds up to a sales environment where it will be increasingly difficult to maintain your year-over-year EV averages.
All of this pushes customers to delay their EV purchases. As that happens, the demand for service, maintenance, software updates, and recall work should increase. And when fewer vehicles get sold, a dealership’s growth engine shifts from sales to fixed ops.
Although the circumstances are unique, it’s a common cycle that industry veterans may recognize:
This means your ability to retain the customers you already have is becoming the critical variable in determining future growth. The stores that continue to grow during this period of transition will be those that:
BizzyCar makes all of this easier. Our AI-powered outreach engages customers your marketing can’t reach and books them directly into your scheduler. For example, the platform can help you turn open recalls into new revenue without lifting a finger. When outreach is automated, it leaves more time for your team to focus on service and building loyalty.
Declining EV sales don’t necessitate lower income. With a joint strategy targeting fixed ops, recalls, and mobile service, you can replace the lost sales volume and continue growing as we head into 2026.
Service demand always rises when vehicle aging increases, but capturing that extra demand is far from guaranteed. To do it consistently, you’ll need to show existing customers that your dealership is the best place to service their car.
That means:
Dealers who treat service scheduling like lead follow-up retain more customers and increase their repair order value.
EVs and newer cars experience software and component recalls at higher early-market rates. This is a major opportunity for your brand, as 1 in 5 cars on the road today have open recalls pending.
These vehicles represent guaranteed RO revenue, paid by the manufacturer, which makes them easier for the customer to justify. But to tap into this revenue, you need a strategic system for notifying and scheduling eligible vehicles.
Most dealerships miss a significant amount of eligible recall revenue simply because their notification process is manual or inconsistent. You can solve that problem with BizzyCar today and tap into a major new income stream tomorrow.
For many EV owners, convenience is the number one factor in determining where they take their car for servicing. You can improve your odds of standing out in this area by offering mobile service.
This means sending a certified technician directly to the customer’s home or workplace. It’s a way to remove friction from service visits and keep customers inside your service network long-term.
Mobile service helps your dealership reach customers who may not schedule otherwise, reduce no-shows by eliminating travel friction, and keep simple jobs out of your service bays so technicians can focus on higher-value work. It strengthens retention during a slower sales cycle — protecting service revenue today and future sales tomorrow.
Given all of this, what should your dealership do today to offset EV sales declines? Here’s a five-step framework to get you started:
This process will help you find every recall opportunity in your customer base, increase loyalty through expanded service options, and decrease no-shows. Collectively, these can more than make up for declining EV sales.
BizzyCar was designed to help dealers capture more revenue from fixed ops, recalls, and mobile service. It’s a unified platform that provides:
It’s the only platform you need to turn your existing customers into loyal repeat service clients. That could be the difference between growing year-over-year revenue or seeing it decline due to the loss of the federal EV tax credit.
EV demand will return over time as tax incentives shift and pricing normalizes. But most dealerships can’t afford to wait for the market to figure this problem out for them. You may need to take proactive action to stay on track and hit your revenue quota.
If new-vehicle sales are slowing in your store, now is the moment to reinforce fixed ops, strengthen your recall strategy, and expand mobile service capacity. BizzyCar makes it easy with a unified platform to automate how you find opportunities, connect with customers, and track performance over time.
Schedule a BizzyCar demo today, and we’ll show you exactly how much service and recall revenue is sitting in your owner database right now.
Image by Paul Brennan from Pixabay