Money Guide · Incentives

EV Charger Incentives in 2026: What’s Left After the Federal Credit Ended

Start with the sentence most incentive pages bury: the federal home-charging credit is over. The Section 30C credit that used to return 30% of a home charger’s cost — up to $1,000 — applies only to equipment placed in service through June 30, 2026. An install finished July 1 or later gets zero, no matter when you bought the charger, and any electrician quote still netting that credit out is working from an old script. What remains is a patchwork of state and utility programs — some genuinely generous, all of them with rules that decide whether you see a dollar. This page lists only programs we verified on the program’s own official pages in November 2026, with the catch attached to each.

The federal credit, precisely

Per the IRS’s own page: for property placed in service at your main home from January 1, 2023 to June 30, 2026, the 30C credit equaled 30% of cost, up to $1,000 per charging port — provided the home sat in a low-income or non-urban census tract. The 2025 tax law moved the termination date up from 2032 to June 30, 2026, and “placed in service” means installed and usable, not purchased. Two consequences worth knowing. If your charger was installed in the first half of 2026 in an eligible tract, the credit is still yours — claim it on your 2026 return with Form 8911. And the vehicle credits went first: the $7,500 new-EV and $4,000 used-EV credits ended for vehicles acquired after September 30, 2025. No replacement federal charger incentive exists as of this writing.

Verified live: charger and installation rebates

Program	Pays up to	Covers	The catch
Xcel Energy — Colorado	$500 · $2,300 income-qualified	Charger + wiring	Enroll in Optimize Your Charge
Xcel Energy — Minnesota	$500 · $1,200 income-qualified	Charger + wiring	Rate-plan enrollment required
ComEd — Illinois	$2,500 (income-eligible tier)	Smart charger + install	First-come; funds slated through Dec 31, 2026 — confirm availability
PG&E — California	50% of charger price · $2,000–$5,000 income-qualified	Charger (+ install, top tier)	Eligible-equipment list; apply within 180 days
SMUD — Sacramento	$850	Equipment + installation	Charger must be on SMUD’s eligible list
LADWP — Los Angeles	$1,000 + $250 meter + $500 income add-on	Charger + installation	Qualifying product list
Green Mountain Power — Vermont	Free charger + $500	Emporia charger + install	Charger stays connected to GMP; discount-rate enrollment
Maryland MEA	$700 (50% of costs)	Charger + install	Apply after install; window closes May 31, 2027
Charge Up New Jersey	$250	Charger	Approved list — and the charger must be networked
Puget Sound Energy — Washington	$300 · $600 + $2,000 install income-qualified	ENERGY STAR smart charger	Apply within 60 days of purchase
Pacific Power — Oregon	$1,500	Hardwired charger (income-qualified only)	Licensed electrician required

Amounts from each program’s official page or terms, checked November 9–10, 2026. Rebate programs change funding and terms without much notice — the program page, not this one, is the final word on the day you apply.

Panel and prep money — real, but it doesn’t buy the charger

• SCE Charge Ready Home (Southern California): up to $4,200 toward a panel upgrade and EV outlet — the biggest number on this page — but it is restricted to income-qualified or disadvantaged-community households and pays for the panel and outlet, not the charger itself.
• Duke Energy Charger Prep Credit (North & South Carolina): pays toward wiring, conduit, outlets, and panel work for a Level 2 install — again, explicitly not the charger hardware. Duke’s current per-household cap lives in its program portal; we could not verify a current figure on Duke’s public pages this run, so check your utility’s portal before counting it.
• Austin Energy (Texas): runs a home Level 2 rebate, but its current amounts and tiers have shifted recently and secondary sources disagree. The program is real; the dollar figure is one to read on Austin’s own page before you buy.

Not rebates — money for charging off-peak instead

Several big utilities have stopped paying for hardware and pay for behavior instead. CPS Energy (San Antonio) has no charger rebate at all; its EV Smart Rewards pay $30 to enroll and $10 a month for managed charging — and its eligible-charger list is short enough to matter: ChargePoint Home Flex and Emporia models qualify. National Grid (upstate New York) pays $25 a month through Charge Smart NY if at least 80% of your home charging happens off-peak. Con Edison‘s SmartCharge New York pays per-kWh off-peak earnings instead of a rebate. None of these offset the install bill, but over five years the monthly ones quietly out-pay a $250 charger rebate — and they reward the smart-charger features our flagship comparison already scores.

Dead programs other pages still list

• Federal 30C charger credit: ended June 30, 2026 (above). Any guide showing it running “through 2032” is stale.
• Massachusetts (Eversource) EV Charging Rebate: the 2026 program year closed November 1, 2026; a restructured 2027 round awaits approval. Its separate managed-charging payments continue.
• New York state: Charge Ready NY pays $3,000 a port — for public, workplace, and multi-unit parking. It is not a single-family home program, however often it appears in “home charger rebate” roundups.
• Colorado state: no statewide home-charger credit exists. Charge Ahead Colorado grants exclude single-family homes entirely; in Colorado the home money is Xcel’s (above).
• Seattle City Light: no live single-family home-charger rebate we could verify on the city’s pages — its current programs target public, multifamily, and fleet charging.

The rules that decide whether you see a dollar

• The charger list is the gate. Most programs pay only for chargers on their own eligible list — often ENERGY STAR certified, Wi-Fi connected, sometimes networked to a state-approved provider (New Jersey). Pick from the list first, shop second.
• Enrollment is not optional. Xcel, ComEd, GMP, and PSE all tie the money to a rate plan or managed-charging program, sometimes for years (ComEd: three years on a time-variant rate).
• Deadlines are short. Application windows run 60 days (PSE) to 180 days (PG&E) from purchase or install; Maryland pays only after the install is finished and paid in full.
• Income tiers are where the money is. Standard tiers run $250–$850; income-qualified tiers reach $2,000–$5,000 and sometimes cover the panel. If your household might qualify, that check comes before the charger choice, not after.
• Licensed work, documented. Several programs require a licensed electrician and an itemized invoice — one more reason to demand the eleven line items in our Install Cost Guide.

Programs and amounts checked November 9–10, 2026, against official IRS, state, and utility pages. Funding runs out and terms change — verify your program is still open before you buy anything in its name.