The clock is officially ticking for everyone who wants to buy an electric vehicle and get a federal tax credit for it. Under the tax and spending bill President Trump signed last week, those credits will no longer be available after September 30.

Federal incentives for EVs have a reasonably long history — they have been around in some form since 2008, back when EVs were just barely a thing. 

“It was, for most car companies, a tech demonstration, a very low-volume production … mostly because of the high price of batteries,” said Gil Tal, director of the Electric Vehicle Research Center at the University of California, Davis.

At that point, car companies didn’t really know if these things would work — or if they’d sell. And they were really expensive to produce. 

But with a tax credit, Tal said, “that allowed them to start thinking about it as a larger volume production.”

Soon, companies started investing in new plants, battery technology, and supply chains. A tax credit of up to $7,500 per vehicle allowed car companies to charge more for EVs and let the credit soften some of the sticker shock for consumers, said Sam Fiorani, vice president of global vehicle forecasting at AutoForecast Solutions.

“The incentive lowers the price for the end consumer, while the manufacturer still gets to keep an additional $7,000 above what the consumer is paying for the electric vehicles,” he said.

Last year, the Biden administration made the credits available at the point of sale. That helped electrics grow to just over 8% of vehicle sales in the U.S.

“This meant that you didn't have to worry about having that extra money to pay for the vehicle upfront. It meant that it expanded the market, for the average person to be able to buy the vehicles,” said Tallis Blalack, a consultant on EV infrastructure projects.

If you’re interested in going electric after the credits go away, Stephanie Valdez Streaty, director of industry insights at Cox Automotive, said a lot of leased EVs that benefited from a credit will soon come off lease into the used vehicle market.

“There's going to be a lot more options for consumers at different price points, different segments,” she said.

That could be one legacy that outlives the EV tax credit.