The combined number of auto and heavy machinery units handled by Brunswick and the Port of Savannah topped 876,000 in the fiscal year ending June 30, the Georgia Ports Authority reported. That’s an increase of 21% over the same period a year ago.

Ports authority CEO Griff Lynch called it “a great year for us.”

The number of cars and light trucks being shipped through the Port of Brunswick has snowballed in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. As U.S. auto sales in 2023 saw their biggest increase in a decade, Georgia was investing $262 million in upgrades and expansions in Brunswick to make room for growth. Lynch said those projects are almost complete and should be finished by fall.

Lynch predicted last October that automobile volumes in Brunswick by 2026 would surpass the Port of Baltimore, the No. 1 U.S. seaport for autos for more than a decade.

The new cargo numbers from Georgia indicate that Brunswick is already extremely close. Port officials in Maryland reported that Baltimore handled 847,000 auto imports and exports in the 2023 calendar year.

Baltimore’s shipping channel shut down completely for weeks following the deadly collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge on March 26, then reopened in phases before the waterway was fully cleared in June.

Total automobile volumes for the Port of Baltimore over the past 12 months aren’t yet available, said Maryland Port Administration spokesperson Richard Sher. That’s because some auto terminals at the port are privately operated, he said, and don’t report volumes until the end of the calendar year.

When the bridge collapse forced auto shipments to be diverted from Baltimore, the Port of Brunswick received about 14,000 of those cars and trucks in April and May, Lynch said.

“Baltimore, I would think, is probably still No. 1, but we’re closing the gap,” Lynch said. “We don’t want to be No. 1 because Baltimore had a bridge collapse.”

He also noted Georgia’s big gains in the past year largely resulted from other sources, such as automakers shifting their business to Brunswick from other neighboring ports such as Charleston, South Carolina, and Jacksonville, Florida.

Georgia’s push to become a Southern hub for electric vehicle production could send more autos across Brunswick’s docks, though perhaps not anytime soon. While Hyundai plans to open its first U.S. plant dedicated to EVs west of Savannah before the year ends, Lynch said he expects the factory to focus initially on vehicles for the U.S. market.

“Now I think it’s fairly well understood that, at least in the early years, they would not be exporting a lot of cars,” Lynch said.

Also Tuesday, the ports authority reported that the Port of Savannah handled 5.25 million container units in the latest fiscal year, down 2.3% from fiscal 2023. Savannah is the fourth-busiest U.S. port for cargo shipped in containers. The giant metal boxes are used to transport goods from consumer electronics to frozen chickens.

Container volumes lagged in the last six months of 2023 as retailers with overstuffed inventories scaled back new orders, Lynch said, but started to rebound in recent months.

According to notices published by Honda and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration earlier this week, the pretensioners — which tighten seat belts in place upon impact — may be missing the rivet that secures the quick connector and wire plate. This means that passengers may not be properly restrained in a crash, regulators said.

The NHTSA credited the issue to an error made during assembly. More than 300,000 Accords and HR-Vs are potentially affected.

As of Nov. 16, Honda had received seven warranty claims, but no reports of injuries or deaths related to the faulty pretensioners, according to documents published by the NHTSA.

For consumers impacted by this recall, dealers will inspect all cars and potentially replace the seat belt pretensioner assembly at no cost. Those who have already paid for these repairs at their own expense may also be eligible for reimbursement.

Honda estimates that less than 1% of the potentially affected vehicles will require a replacement. The vast majority are expected to be satisfied by an inspection alone, a Honda spokesperson told The Associated Press on Saturday.

Notification letters will be sent via mail to registered owners of the affected vehicles starting Jan. 8, 2024. Replacement parts should be available to dealers by the end of the month, the spokesperson said, but consumers can go to an authorized Honda dealer for the inspection now.

For more information about the recall, consumers can visit the NHTSA website and Honda’s and online recall pages.

In a Facebook Live appearance, Fain didn’t announce any more factories to add to those that have been on strike for up to five weeks. But he warned that the UAW could announce such an expansion of its strikes at any time, depending on how much progress it makes in its negotiations with the automakers.

In the past 24 hours, Fain said, Stellantis and GM have made wage offers that matched Ford’s 23% over the life of a four year contract. But, speaking in his characteristic sharp tones, the union president insisted that the companies can go further.

“We’ve got cards left to play, and they’ve got money left to spend,” he said.

Arguing that Ford “pretends they can’t afford what we’re asking for,” Fain noted that the company has complained about the union’s walkout at the Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville, which has had to shut down. That plant is the largest and most profitable Ford factory in the world.

Though Fain said the UAW will make an aggressive push to secure better contract offers, he contended that the companies are trying to divide union members.

“They just want to wait us out,” he said. “They want to divide. They want fear and they want uncertainty. What we have is solidarity.”

While the companies keep touting that they have made record offers to the UAW, Fain said they are insufficient to make up for how much ground workers have lost during the past two decades. Every time the automakers make an offer, Fain said, they insist it’s the best they can do, only to return days later with a better offer.

“What that should tell you,” Fain said, is that “there’s room to move.”

In a statement, GM said it made an offer Friday with “substantial movement in all key areas in an effort to reach a final agreement with the UAW and get our people back to work.”

The company says the offer raises pay for most of the work force to $40.39 per hour, or about $84,000 per year by the end of a four-year contract. That’s a 23% increase over the $32.32 per hour that most factory workers make. Compounded annually it’s 25%.

The company also said it reinstated cost of living raises for many employees in the first year of the contract, boosting the pay increase to over 30% by September of 2027. Workers gave up the inflation-fighting raises in 2007 when the companies were in financial trouble.

GM previously had offered to contribute 8% of a worker’s salary into 401(k) defined contribution plans.

The UAW had been seeking 36% raises over the four years.

Stephen McCray, one of the striking GM workers at a factory in Wentzville, Missouri near St. Louis, said the company’s latest offer seems to be good, but he is suspicious that GM will wait a year to give cost of living increases.

A former temporary worker, he’s concerned that part-time temps won’t be converted to full time in the deal. That said, McCray thinks workers will ratify the contract because of the raises, cost of living pay, and other benefits, if Fain tells workers this is the best deal he could get.

“If this is what he’s going to bring to the table, after everything that has been going on since September, I believe it will be ratified,” McCray said. “This might be the best that they might bring out.”

But Adrian Mitchell, a striking worker at GM’s parts warehouse in Van Buren Township, Michigan, said increases in the 401(k) payment and for retirement health care aren’t big enough. He doesn’t think there’s enough yet for a tentative agreement. “I think he should maybe fight a little more at the table to try to get a few more things,” Mitchell said.

It’s not clear just when Fain may call on more workers to strike and join the 34,000 already off the job at six vehicle assembly plants and 38 parts distribution warehouses.

Masters said in order to settle with all three, Ford and Stellantis will have to join GM in agreeing to include future electric vehicle battery factories in the UAW national agreement. That would essentially ensure that the factories of the future would be represented by the union, a key point for the UAW.

Last week, before GM agreed to the battery plant provisions, the union had threatened to close a GM factory in Arlington, Texas, which makes highly profitable large SUVs.

The union’s strikes at targeted plants at each company began on Sept. 15 and are nearing the start of their sixth week.

The UAW also is seeking restoration of defined benefit pensions that workers gave up in the Great Recession, pension increases for retirees, an end to varying tiers of wages for workers and other items. GM’s offer appears to end the tiers in the last year of the new contract.

GM said Thursday that it can’t give Fain everything he wants because it needs profits to invest in future vehicles and factories. Ford and Stellantis have made similar comments, with Ford saying it has reached the limit on how much it can spend to settle the strike.

The union, however, says labor expenses are only about 5% of a vehicle’s costs, and the companies can divert money from profits and stock buybacks to pay for raises that cover inflation and make up for years of contracts without significant increases.

The strikes started with one assembly plant from each compan, and the union later added the parts warehouses, then one assembly plant each from Ford and GM. Last week the union made a surprise move, escalating the strikes by adding a huge Ford pickup truck and SUV plant in Louisville, Kentucky.

About 23% of the union’s 146,000 members employed by the three automakers are on strike.

General Motors Co. and the parent company of China’s BYD Auto Ltd. went straight to the source and bought stakes in lithium miners, a rare step in an industry that relies on outside vendors for copper and other raw materials. Others are investing in lithium refining or ventures to recycle the silvery-white metal from used batteries.

A shortfall in lithium supplies would be an obstacle for government and industry plans to ramp up sales to tens of millions of electric vehicles a year. It is fueling political conflict over resources and complaints about the environmental cost of extracting them.

“We already have that risk” of not being able to get enough, said GM’s chief financial officer, Paul A. Jacobson, at a Deutsche Bank conference in mid-June.

“We’ve got to have partnerships with people that can get us the lithium in the form that we need,” Jacobson said.

Ford Motor Co. has signed contracts stretching up to 11 years into the future with lithium suppliers on two continents. Volkswagen AG and Honda Motor Co. are trying to reduce their need for freshly mined ore by forming recycling ventures.

Global lithium output is on track to triple this decade, but sales of electric SUVs, sports cars and sedans that rose 55% last year threaten to outrun that. Each battery requires about 17 pounds of lithium, plus cobalt, nickel and other metals.

“There will be a shortage of EV battery supplies,” said Joshua Cobb, senior auto analyst for BMI.

Adding to uncertainty, lithium has emerged as another conflict in strained U.S.-Chinese relations.

Beijing, Washington and other governments see metal supplies for electric vehicles as a strategic issue and are tightening controls on access. Canada ordered three Chinese companies last year to sell lithium mining assets on security grounds.

Other governments including Indonesia, Chile and Zimbabwe are trying to maximize their return on deposits of lithium, cobalt and nickel by requiring miners to invest in refining and processing before they can export.

GM is buying direct access to lithium by investing $650 million in the Canadian developer of a Nevada mine that is the biggest U.S. source. In return, GM says it will get enough for 1 million vehicles a year.

Conservationists and American Indians are asking a federal court to block development of the Nevada mine, which the Biden administration has embraced as part of its clean energy agenda. Opponents say it might poison water supplies and soil and pollute nesting grounds for birds.

“Securing metals must not come at a sacrifice to the environment,” said a U.S. group, the Natural Resources Defense Council, in a report last year.

BYD Auto’s parent company, battery maker BYD Co., has announced more than $5 billion in investments in lithium mining and refining over the past 18 months.

Most are in China, but BYD also is promising to spend $290 million on a processing facility in Chile, one of the biggest lithium producers. In exchange, BYD is allowed to buy lithium from Chilean miners at a discount.

At home, BYD announced last year it would invest $4.2 billion in a venture to produce 100,000 tons of lithium carbonate a year in the eastern city of Yichun.

Another Chinese automaker, NIO Inc., bought 12% of Australian lithium miner Greenwing Resources Ltd. last year for $8.1 million.

Despite rising output, the industry may face shortages of lithium and cobalt as early as 2025 if enough isn’t invested in production, according to Leonardo Paoli and Timur Gul of the International Energy Agency.

“Supply side bottlenecks are becoming a real challenge,” said Paoli and Gul in a report last year.

Automakers might be putting in their own money to reassure “notoriously risk-averse” miners, according to Alastair Bedwell of GlobalData. He said miners are reluctant to “go all out” on lithium until they are sure the industry won’t switch to batteries made with other metals.

Even if they do, developing lithium sources is a yearslong process.

Mines that came online in 2010-19 took on average more than 16 years from discovery to the start of production, according to Paoli and Gul of the IEA.

“These long lead times raise questions about the ability of supply to ramp up,” they wrote.

Investment by automakers might “help to remove some of their partners’ risk and ultimately create more production,” Bedwell said in an email.

Worldwide lithium resources are estimated at 80 million tons by the U.S. Geological Survey.

Bolivia’s are the biggest at 21 millions tons, followed by Australia with 17 million and Chile with 9 million. China has 4.5 million tons of known reserves and the United States has 1 million.

Forecasts of annual global production range as high as 1.5 million tons by 2030. But demand, if EV sales keep rising at double-digit annual rates, is forecast to increase to up to 3 million tons.

Sales of battery-powered and gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles took off in 2021, more than doubling over the previous year to 6.8 million, according to EV Volumes, a research firm. Last year’s sales rose to 10.5 million.

China accounted for 60% of last year’s sales, two-thirds of production and three-quarters of battery manufacturing.

Ford plans to sell 2 million EVs a year by 2026. GM, with 2022 sales of 3.6 million cars, has plans for 30 electric models and North American production capacity of 1 million two years from now in 2025.

Toyota Motor Co.’s annual target is 3.5 million by 2030. VW, which sold 4.6 million cars worldwide last year, is aiming for 70% of sales in Europe and 50% in China and the United States to be electric by 2030.

President Joe Biden last year announced an official goal for half of all new cars sold in the United State to be electric or other zero-emissions technology by 2030.

As sales rise, so does government unease, especially in Washington and Beijing, about access to lithium and other minerals and the potential for strategic competition.

Volkswagen’s battery unit, PowerCo, signed an agreement with Canada last August to develop suppliers of “critical raw materials” including lithium, cobalt and nickel.

The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, in a statement welcomed cooperation with “close friends” on “raw material security.”

Last year, Canada imposed limits on foreign involvement in production of lithium and other “critical minerals” for batteries and other high-tech products.

China’s government has accused the United States, Canada, Japan and other governments of misusing phony security concerns to hurt Chinese competitors in electric cars, smartphones, clean energy and other emerging technologies.

Other governments welcome Chinese investment.

China’s biggest lithium producer, Ganfeng Lithium Co., bought Argentina’s Lithea Inc. last year for $962 million. In 2021, Ganfeng bought Mexico’s Bacanora Lithium for $391 million. It is developing a project in the northern region of Sonora with planned annual output of 35,000 tons.

China’s Tianqi Lithium Inc. owns 23.8% of Chile’s dominant producer, Sociedad Quimicay Minera, or SQM.

About two-thirds of the world’s lithium comes from mines. That involves crushing rock and using acids to extract metals. It leaves toxic heaps of chemical-laced tailings.

The rest is extracted from salt lakes or from salt flats called salars in Chile and Bolivia. That can require vast evaporation ponds.

The industry is working on technology to extract lithium from hot springs, lakes and clay deposits with less environmental impact.

VW has a five-year supply contract with Vulcan Energy Resources Ltd., which plans to produce lithium hydroxide from geothermal brine in Germany’s Rhine Valley.

Vulcan says its process uses no fossil fuels. That is a response to complaints EVs do little to reduce overall carbon emissions because energy for their manufacturing and charging usually comes from coal, gas and oil.

As they ramp up supplies, automakers face another bottleneck: Lack of refining capacity to purify raw lithium into battery material.

Tesla Inc. broke ground in Texas last month for a lithium refinery that CEO Elon Musk should produce enough for 1 million vehicles per year by 2025.

“The choke point is much more on refining capacity than it is on mining,” said Musk in an April conference call with reporters.

Other manufacturers including BMW AG, which aims to make at least half its sales fully electric by 2030, are buying stakes in lithium refiners.

As for GM, “I don’t know” whether it will build its own refinery, Jacobson said.

“Where I can help fund some expansion in exchange for guaranteed supply, that’s a good thing,” he said. “We should be open to doing that.”

Smaller brands without their own lithium supply might be squeezed, according to Bedwell. He said they might be forced to pay more, which might threaten the existence of some.

“Certainly, mass-market players who don’t get their lithium strategy right will be at a disadvantage,” said Bedwell.

The regulatory change — which came to light in 2021 as the state sought a new contractor to handle vehicle inspections — would lengthen the amount of time before new cars need to be inspected by the state from three years to six, among other alterations.

The move has drawn concern from a committee of state lawmakers that reviews regulations, called the Joint Committee on Administrative, Executive and Legislative Review. The majority of legislators on the committee voted against the regulation during a session in December, though Republicans favored it.

Committee Chairman Del. Sandy Rosenberg, a Democrat who represents Baltimore City, spoke out against it.

“There are serious issues here — substantive issues — about the effect of these regs on people of lower income, in terms of the disproportionate burden that would be imposed upon them — those citizens of the state — to get the inspection,” Rosenberg said.

In part, the regulation would exempt owners of newer cars, who are typically part of a higher income bracket than owners of older cars, Rosenberg said in an interview with The Baltimore Sun. At the beginning of its search for a new contractor, the state also said it’s considering some decentralization of the program, by allowing private businesses to conduct the testing.

Committee members also were concerned with the legality of the regulation’s rollout, Rosenberg said.

In an analysis of the new regulation by the Department of Legislative Services, state analysts expressed concern that the alterations were made by the agency, rather than the General Assembly.

“It is unclear whether the General Assembly intended for such major changes to the inspection program, called VEIP, to be made through regulations that rely on a broad interpretation of the authority of MVA and MDE rather than such changes being made through the legislative process,” read the analysis.

But in a letter dated Jan. 3, Hogan, a Republican, wrote that he’d instructed the Maryland Department of Transportation to move forward with the changes anyway.

“With the improved performance of vehicle emissions technology over the last decade, it is necessary to evaluate and modernize Maryland’s VEIP program, which was originally adopted in 1984, and ensure the program does not unnecessarily burden Marylanders,” read Hogan’s letter to the Rosenberg and Sen. Sarah Elfreth, the chairpeople of the joint legislative review committee.

When the regulations were first brought forward, MDOT officials said vehicles that would be newly excluded by this plan, those between 3 and 6 model years old, have an average pass rate of 99%, compared with 87% for older vehicles. The new regulation also establishes “motorist assistance centers” meant to help drivers with repairs.

The regulation was published Jan. 13, and takes effect 10 days later, said Hogan spokesman Mike Ricci.

The request for proposals seeking a contractor to run the VEIP program is open, and has a Feb. 14 deadline, said Ashley Millner, a spokesperson for MDOT Motor Vehicle Administration.

For opponents of the changes, two options remain, Rosenberg said. The General Assembly could make changes to the vehicle emissions inspection program during its upcoming session, or incoming Democratic Gov. Wes Moore could reverse course.

In a statement, Moore spokesman Carter Elliott said “the concerns about equity raised by the [Administrative, Executive and Legislative Review] committee are valid and must be taken into consideration when exploring how to best move forward.”

“The Moore-Miller Administration is deeply committed to combating the crippling effects of climate change in a way that is fair and equitable to all Marylanders,” he continued.

Kumar Barve, who chairs the House of Delegates’ Environment and Transportation Committee, also has spoken out against the rule change.

“It’s the position of the committee that a major change of policy like this ought not to be made through procurement,” said Barve, a Montgomery County Democrat.

Barve said the committee still is looking at the issue, and determining how to proceed.

In the nearly two years since the vehicle emissions inspection changes were originally put forward, some things were altered, according to the governor’s letter.

For instance, the regulation initially phased out all non-computerized emissions tests, including idle tests. But the move would have exempted older heavy-duty trucks that don’t have this technology, a change that went against state law, according to the analysts from the Department of Legislative Services. The regulations were revised to reflect that onboard diagnostic and idle testing for those trucks will continue, Hogan wrote.

Hogan also wrote that “uncertain regulatory action, caused, in part, by the Maryland General Assembly,” has delayed the process of finding a new contractor for the VEIP program. The new contract likely would lower the cost to Maryland, as the state would be charged based on the number of tests conducted, rather than a flat fee, according to Hogan’s letter.

The state’s contract with the current vendor, Envirotest Maryland, has been extended until September 2024 “to allow time to complete a new procurement,” according to Maryland Board of Public Works documents. That two-year contract is worth $25.6 million.

The Department of Legislative Services also estimated that, overall, the rule change would decrease revenues bound for the Transportation Trust Fund by about $6.1 million per fiscal year, because of the decline in emissions testing fees. That analysis was completed for fiscal year 2023. In turn, expenditures would decrease about $178,000 a year, according to the fiscal analysis.

The Trust Fund, established in 1971, supports the Maryland Department of Transportation, and is used for all of its activities, including maintenance and capital projects.

But a complex web of requirements, including where vehicles and batteries must be manufactured to qualify, is casting some doubt on whether anyone can receive the full $7,500 credit next year.

The Treasury Department is rolling out more information on which vehicles qualify and how individuals and businesses can access credit beginning in 2023.

For at least the first two months of 2023, though, a delay in Treasury’s rules for the new benefit will likely make the full credit temporarily available to consumers who meet certain income and price limits.

The new law also provides a smaller credit for people who buy a used EV.

Certain EV brands that were eligible for a separate tax credit that began in 2010 and that will end this year may not be eligible for the new credit. Several EV models made by Kia, Hyundai and Audi, for example, won’t qualify because they are manufactured outside North America.

The new tax credit, which lasts until 2032, is intended to make zero-emission vehicles affordable to more people. Here is a closer look at it.

What’s new for 2023?

The credit of up to $7,500 will be offered to people who buy certain new electric vehicles as well as some plug-in gas-electric hybrids and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. For people who buy a used vehicle that runs on battery power, a $4,000 credit will be available.

But the question of which vehicles and buyers will qualify for the credits is complicated and will remain uncertain until Treasury issues the proposed rules in March.

What’s known so far is that to qualify for the credit, new EVs must be made in North America. In addition, caps on vehicle prices and buyer incomes are intended to disqualify wealthier buyers.

Starting in March, complex provisions will also govern battery components. Forty percent of battery minerals will have to come from North America or a country with a U.S. free trade agreement or be recycled in North America. (That threshold will eventually go to 80%.)

And 50% of the battery parts will have to be made or assembled in North America, eventually rising to 100%.

Starting in 2025, battery minerals cannot come from a “foreign entity of concern,” mainly China and Russia. Battery parts cannot be sourced in those countries starting in 2024 — a troublesome obstacle for the auto industry because numerous EV metals and parts now come from China.

There also are battery-size requirements.

Which vehicles are eligible?

Because of the many remaining uncertainties, that’s not entirely clear. However, the Treasury Department released an initial list of vehicles that meet the requirements to claim the new clean vehicle tax credit beginning Jan. 1, including models from Chrysler, Ford, Jeep, Lincoln, Nissan and Rivian. More vehicles will be added to the list in the weeks and months to come.

The Energy Department also maintains a list of qualifying EVs.

General Motors and Tesla have the most EVs assembled in North America. Each also makes batteries in the U.S. But because of the requirements for where batteries, minerals and parts must be manufactured, it’s likely that buyers of those vehicles would initially receive only half the tax credit, $3,750. GM says its eligible EVs should qualify for the $3,750 credit by March, with the full credit available in 2025.

Until Treasury issues its rules, though, the requirements governing where minerals and parts must be sourced will be waived. This will allow eligible buyers to receive the full $7,500 tax incentive for qualifying models early in 2023.

What about price?

To qualify, new electric sedans cannot have a sticker price above $55,000. Pickup trucks, SUVs and vans can’t be over $80,000. This will disqualify two higher-priced Tesla models. Though Tesla’s top sellers, the models 3 and Y, will be eligible, with options, those vehicles might exceed the price limits.

Kelley Blue Book says the average EV now costs over $65,000, though lower-priced models are coming.

Will I qualify for the credits?

It depends on your income. For new EVs, buyers cannot have an adjusted gross income above $150,000 if single, $300,000 if filing jointly and $225,000 if head of a household.

For used EVs, buyers cannot earn more than $75,000 if single, $150,000 if filing jointly and $112,500 if head of household.

How will the credit be paid?

At first, it will be applied to your 2023 tax return, which you file in 2024. Starting in 2024, consumers can transfer the credit to a dealership to lower the vehicle price at purchase.

Will the credits boost EV sales?

Yes, but it probably will take a few years, says Mike Fiske, associate director for S&P Global Mobility. The credit may cause a bump in sales early next year because of Treasury’s delay in issuing the stricter requirements. But most automakers are now selling all the EVs they build and cannot make more because of shortages of parts, including computer chips.

And automakers may have trouble certifying the sources of battery minerals and parts, a requirement for buyers to receive the full credit. Automakers have been scrambling to move more EV supply chains to the U.S.

How does the used EV credit work?

Consumers can receive tax credits of up to $4,000 — or 30% of the vehicle price, whichever is less — for buying EVs that are at least two years old. But the used EV must cost less than $25,000 — a tall order given the starting prices for most EVs on the market. A search on Autotrader.com shows that the Chevy Bolt, the Nissan Leaf and other relatively economical used EVs are listed at $26,000 or more for models dating back to 2019.

On the other hand, used EVs need not be made in North America or comply with the battery-sourcing requirements. That means that, for instance, a 2022 Kia EV6 that’s ineligible for the new-vehicle credit because it’s made in South Korea can qualify for a used-car credit if its price falls below $25,000.

“The real effects where these tax credits will have a big impact will be in the 2026-to-2032 period — a few years into the future — as automakers gear up and volumes increase,” said Chris Harto, a senior policy analyst for Consumer Reports magazine.

Why is the government offering the credits?

The credits are part of roughly $370 billion in spending on clean energy — America’s largest investment to fight climate change — that was signed into law in August by President Joe Biden. EVs now make up about 5% of U.S. new-vehicle sales; Biden has set a goal of 50% by 2030.

Sales of EVs have been climbing, particularly as California and other states have moved to phase out gas-powered cars. The rise of lower-cost competitors to Tesla, such as the Chevy Equinox, with an expected base price of around $30,000, are expected to broaden the EVs’ reach to middle-class households. S&P Global Mobility expects EVs’ share of auto sales to reach 8% next year, 15% by 2025 and 37% by 2030.

Could requirements be eased to make more EVs eligible?

It appears that may happen. Some U.S. allies are upset over North American manufacturing requirements that disqualify EVs made in Europe or South Korea.

The requirements knock Hyundai and Kia out of the credits, at least in the short term. They plan to build new EV and battery plants in Georgia, but those won’t open until 2025. European Union countries fear that the tax credits could make their automakers move factories to the U.S.

There is a potential loophole, however. The law appears to exempt commercial vehicles from the North America assembly and domestic battery mineral and parts requirements. That means that rental car, leasing and ride-share companies such as Uber and Lyft could get tax credits for foreign-made EVs, passing savings on to consumers. A fact sheet released by Treasury on Thursday indicates it would allow exemptions for commercial vehicles.

That move has drawn the ire of Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., a key vote in passing the Inflation Reduction Act, who on Thursday accused the Biden administration of bending to the desires of foreign countries. He said the exemptions undermine the law’s intent to “bring our energy and manufacturing supply chains onshore to protect our national security, reduce our dependence on foreign adversaries and create jobs right here in the United States.”

Manchin said he would introduce legislation in the coming weeks that “prevents this dangerous interpretation from Treasury from moving forward.”

Are there credits for charging stations?

If you install an EV charger at home, credits may be available. The new law revives a federal tax credit that had expired in 2021; it provides 30% of the cost of hardware and installation, up to $1,000. It adds a requirement that the charger must be in a low-income or non-urban area. Businesses that install new EV chargers in those areas can receive tax credits of as much as 30% — up to $100,000 per charger.

Residential EV chargers can range in cost from $200 to $1,000; installation can add several more hundred dollars.

So should I buy now or wait?

That’s entirely a personal decision.

If you’ve grown tired of volatile gasoline prices and are considering an EV, you might want to go ahead. Buying a qualifying EV in January or February could net you the full $7,500 tax break before more stringent requirements take effect in March. Additional state credits also may be available.

But if you’re still on the fence, there’s no urgency. Consumers who rush to buy now, when relatively few qualifying EVs are available, may face dealer price markups. Within a few years, technology will improve, and more EVs will qualify for full credits.

Where can I find more information?

The Treasury Department on Thursday released several frequently asked questions documents for individual and commercial customers on the clean vehicle tax credits meant to help them understand how to access the various tax incentives.

The department also released a white paper explaining the anticipated direction that it is taking ahead of the proposed rule rollout.

Krisher reported from Detroit. Associated Press writer Fatima Hussein contributed to this report.

AAA said the national average for a gallon of regular was $3.99 on Thursday. Prices have dropped 15 cents in the past week and 68 cents in the last month, according to the auto club.

This week also marks the first time gas in Maryland has been under $4 since the state’s 30-day holiday on collection of its fuel tax was lifted in mid-April.

As of Thursday morning, AAA reported that the average price for a gallon of regular gas in Maryland is $3.97 — 91-cents higher than last year’s average.

The shopping app GasBuddy reported that the national average was already down to $3.98 on Wednesday.

Falling prices for gas, airline tickets and clothes are giving consumers a bit of relief, although inflation is still close to a four-decade high.

Oil prices began rising in mid-2020 as economies recovered from the initial shock of the pandemic. They rose again when the U.S. and allies announced sanctions against Russian oil over Russia’s war against Ukraine.

Recently, however, oil prices have dropped on concern about slowing economic growth around the world. U.S. benchmark crude oil has recently dipped close to $90 a barrel from over $120 a barrel in June.

High prices also may be causing U.S. motorists to drive less. Gasoline demand in early August was down 3.3% from the same week last year after tracking more closely to 2021 numbers earlier in the summer.

Prices at the pump are likely to be a major issue heading into the midterm elections in November.

Republicans blame President Joe Biden for the high gasoline prices, seizing on his decisions to cancel a permit for a major pipeline and suspend new oil and gas leases on federal lands.

Biden said over the weekend that a family with two cars is saving $100 a month because prices have dropped from their peak in mid-June.

“That’s breathing room,” he tweeted. “And we’re not letting up any time soon.”

Biden has also sparred with oil companies, accusing them of not producing as much oil and gasoline as they could while posting huge profits. “Exxon made more money than God this year,” he said in June.

Exxon said it has increased oil production. The CEO of Chevron said Biden was trying to vilify his industry.

The nationwide average for gas hasn’t been under $4 since early March. Prices topped out at $5.02 a gallon on June 14, according to AAA. They declined slowly the rest of June, then began dropping more rapidly.

Motorists in California and Hawaii are still paying above $5, and other states in the West are paying close to that. The cheapest gas is in Texas and several other states in the South and Midwest.

A year ago, the nationwide average price was around $3.20 a gallon.

Reporter Hannah Gaskill of The Baltimore Sun contributed to this article.

The state tax is tied to inflation and set to increase Friday from around 36 cents to about 43 cents per gallon. Legislative leaders have declined to pass emergency legislation to stop the price hike even as drivers continue to bemoan the cost of fuel.

The national average for a gallon of gas was just under $4.90 both in Maryland and nationwide Monday.

President Joe Biden, a Democrat, said last week he’d like to see a three-month suspension of the federal 18-cent gas tax, but his plans appear doomed to come up short in Congress.

Republican U.S. Rep. Andy Harris, speaking Monday with state and Baltimore County officials at a High’s gas station in Perry Hall, railed against Biden’s overall energy policies while saying he has concerns over how a federal gas tax holiday would be paid for.

But it’s a different story at the state level, Harris said, arguing that leaders in Maryland’s General Assembly should use the billions of dollars in budget reserves and federal pandemic aid to alleviate drivers’ upcoming 43-cent gas tax for the next six months.

“The money is sitting there. It’s federal dollars that have already been spent,” Harris said.

By contrast, he pointed out that a federal tax holiday would require officials to “borrow every penny to pay for it.”

Del. Kathy Szeliga, standing alongside Harris near where drivers were filling up for $4.68 per gallon, said it likely would cost less than $1 billion of the state’s $7.5 billion budget surplus for a six-month gas tax holiday.

“This is harming single moms, college students, retirees. We are urging Annapolis to do something right now and bring some relief,” said Szeliga, a Baltimore County Republican.

Her comments followed renewed calls last week from Republican Gov. Larry Hogan for legislative leaders to prevent the state’s automatic increase.

House Speaker Adrienne Jones and Senate President Bill Ferguson, in turn, reiterated their statement from late May raising concerns about losing funds for road and bridge maintenance projects. The increase to the state’s gas tax, which pays for those projects, is estimated to raise an additional $200 million in revenue in the next year.

“States cannot unilaterally bear the burden of increased gas prices driven in part by [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s aggression in Ukraine and in part by the corporate greed of oil companies bringing in record profits,” Democrats Jones, of Baltimore County, and Ferguson, of Baltimore, said in the statement.

Legislators and the governor approved a 30-day gas tax holiday in March as Russia’s war in Ukraine accelerated gas prices that already had been rising because of increasing demand and supply chain issues emerging from the pandemic.

Szeliga, calling for a six-month holiday now, said it still would be “kind of gimmicky because it’s only going to be a Band-Aid on the problem.”

She and Harris, both up for reelection this year along with all of the state’s congressmen and General Assembly members, blamed the Biden administration for a temporary pause on leasing oil and gas drilling on federal land and for canceling the Keystone XL crude oil pipeline, which analysts have said are not the causes of the current price hikes.

That will come as a shock to many drivers who have appreciated the savings as they struggle with rising pocketbook pressures. The tax holiday will end just days after an economic report confirmed that inflation is rising more sharply than it has since 1981, in large part because of the surging cost of fuel.

“I’m a single mom, so it’s really been affecting me badly,” said Ayanna Martin, a 27-year-old Towson University student who works as a call center agent. On Wednesday she put $10 worth of $3.90-a-gallon gas into her tank, just enough to make it through the week.

“This is all I have for the next couple of days, until I get paid on Friday,” Martin said. “I’m just trying to budget. Just trying to survive, basically.”

State lawmakers paused collection of the state’s 36-cent-per-gallon gas tax and 37-cent-per-gallon diesel tax in March in response to fuel prices that surged to record highs around the country after Russia attacked Ukraine.

Economic sanctions imposed on Russia in response to the invasion have had wide-reaching effects on food and energy markets, including limiting the significant supply of crude oil exported from that country. At the same time, inflation has been rapidly accelerating for the first time in four decades because of surging demand, as the U.S. and global economies have recovered unexpectedly quickly from the coronavirus-induced recession that began in the spring of 2020.

Nationally, gas prices hit an all-time high average of $4.33 on March 11, while Maryland prices hit a peak of $4.31 that same day, according to the automotive group AAA. As of Friday, the national average price for a gallon of regular gas was $4.07, 42% higher than a year earlier. In Maryland, the average was $3.68, a third higher than a year ago.

Rising fuel prices are a significant driver of the broader inflation in the economy. They have led to higher transportation costs for the shipment of goods across the economy, which, in turn, has contributed to higher prices for consumers.

In response, discussions over gas taxes and measures to reduce financial burdens on consumers and businesses have swirled in state capitals around the country for the past month. The same day Maryland enacted its gas tax holiday, Georgia also did so, extending its policy through May. Weeks later, Connecticut approved a gas tax holiday from April through June.

At least a dozen states — among them California, Kansas, Maine and Minnesota — have meanwhile proposed sending rebate checks of several hundred dollars directly to taxpayers to ease rising costs of fuel and other products.

Along with the gas tax holiday, Maryland passed nearly $2 billion in tax relief for retirees and for parents of young children in the annual legislative session that ended Monday. That became practical and popular when, as lawmakers were preparing the state budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1, the comptroller’s office projected a more than $7 billion state operating budget surplus.

Late in the session, there were calls to extend Maryland’s gas tax holiday as consumers and businesses continued to struggle with rising costs. The gas tax suspension amounted to about $4 in savings to fill a typical car’s tank.

Republicans in the state House of Delegates proposed continuing it an additional 45 days through an amendment offered last week to an unrelated bill. Comptroller Peter Franchot, a Democrat whose office is in charge of collecting taxes and who is running for governor, also endorsed an extension.

“Though we know this is short-term relief, it’s necessary relief,” said Del. Brenda Thiam, a Washington County Republican.

But House Democrats argued against extending the holiday, saying it could have a significant impact on the state’s ability to build and fix roads, bridges and transit systems.

The gas tax is the main source of income for the state’s transportation trust fund, an account used to pay for road and transit projects. The tax holiday bill that passed the legislature in March included a mechanism to send money from the state operating budget surplus into the transportation fund to cover the nearly $100 million in expected gas tax revenue the state was expected to forgo.

The proposal to extend the tax holiday further didn’t include such a mechanism, and Democrats said that’s why they voted it down.

Theo Norris, a 63-year-old resident of Cross Keys in North Baltimore, said the temporary nature of the gas-tax holiday meant it wasn’t much help. The prices will go back up just as people continue to struggle with inflation, she said.

“Everything has just gotten astronomically, outrageously ridiculous,” Norris said.

For Earl Smith, 69, of the Anneslie neighborhood in Towson, the discussion about the gas tax holiday “brought to light the fact that we’re overtaxed.”

While the gas-tax moratorium has saved him money, “I wouldn’t say, ‘Let’s go out and have a Ruth’s Chris steak dinner on it,” Smith said as he filled up at a gas station on York Road.

Gas station owners will be forced to add to that pain early Sunday.

They will be required to report to the comptroller’s office the amount of fuel they have on hand when the tax holiday ends and pay the state the 36-cent tax on each gallon. That means prices are expected to rise as immediately as they dropped back on March 18, said Kirk McCauley, director of member and government relations for the Washington, Maryland, Delaware Service Station and Automotive Repair Association.

“They’re going to add 36 cents back into the price of gasoline,” McCauley said. “That’s all they can do.”

The Associated Press contributed to this article.