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Tesla Will Be First Automaker To Lose the Federal Tax Credit For Electric Cars (theverge.com)
Tesla has confirmed to Jalopnik that its 200,000th vehicle has been delivered this month, meaning the full $7,500 federal tax credit for electric cars will slowly be phased out. Tesla is the first automaker to reach this mark. "GM is close, too, while Nissan, Ford, and others still have a ways to go," notes The Verge. From the report: Tesla customers who take delivery of their cars -- regardless of whether it's a Model S, X, or 3 -- between now and December 31st, 2018, will still be eligible for the full $7,500 credit from the IRS. Customers who take delivery of their cars between January 1st and June 30th, 2019, will only be eligible for a $3,750 credit. And customers who take delivery of their cars between July 1st and December 31st, 2019, will be offered just $1,875. After that, the incentive is dead.
Put in place early on in the Obama administration, the tax credit was seen as a tool that could be used to encourage customers to buy plug-in electric or hybrid vehicles. This would simultaneously help advance the president's climate and clean energy goals while offering consumers a bit of a break while the cost of battery technology slowly came down. It was also meant to encourage manufacturers to push for greater advancements in that technology. The dollar amount was technically flexible; it was essentially a $2,500 credit with room to increase up to $7,500 depending on the battery capacity of the car being sold. The better the battery in a company's car, the better the rebate their buyers would get.
Put in place early on in the Obama administration, the tax credit was seen as a tool that could be used to encourage customers to buy plug-in electric or hybrid vehicles. This would simultaneously help advance the president's climate and clean energy goals while offering consumers a bit of a break while the cost of battery technology slowly came down. It was also meant to encourage manufacturers to push for greater advancements in that technology. The dollar amount was technically flexible; it was essentially a $2,500 credit with room to increase up to $7,500 depending on the battery capacity of the car being sold. The better the battery in a company's car, the better the rebate their buyers would get.
Not only did he move the Overton window so far that a Trump was inevitable... but also created incentives to buy electric cars, which have clearly been so popular with Teslas, have allowed it's CEO to make massive donations to the GOP: http://fortune.com/2018/07/15/...
Why hasnt President Orange done away with this BIGLY pork barrelling? Draining the swamp.. any day now! Be best!
Moving energy by powerline is no way cheaper than moving petro to your gas station... if there was a better way to move fuel, everybody would be going for it. There's just no such thing as a cheaper way to power cars... just a different way of doing things.
As a middle class dude who cannot afford to buy a Tesla, I'm just glad that I was able to subsidize the wealthy in their efforts to save the environment. Thank you, President Obama.
The way the thing is set up at the moment, as soon as a automaker hits 200,000 cars the subsidy decay clock begins for that automaker. Other manufacturers can amble up to the line and then take their swill from the trough at their leisure knowing their slice is reserved.
A better way would have been to have a larger shared trough of subsidy $ that is gobbled up and gone when it's gone. That would have accelerated EV manufacture as it would encourage more rapid adoption and penalise the slackards.
the electric vehicle tax credits began prior to obama's administration. it was tacked onto the bank bailout bill that was passed a month before the 2008 election.
but the wealthy buy both parties off. The only solution is candidates who pledge to take no corporate PAC money. Right now these are the Democrat equivalent. If anyone knows any Republican equivalents let me know. I haven't found any but that doesn't mean they're not out there.
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EV sales aren't being driven by the market though. They're being driven by California's ZEV mandate, which requires a certain percentage of each automaker's sales be EVs (or they buy credits from an automaker who exceeds their quota). If they fail, they're banned from selling cars in California. And since about a dozen states automatically adopt California's guidelines, they'd end up banned from selling cars from about a third of the U.S. by population. Nobody wants to be cut off from a third of the U.S. market, so they're all working to push out EVs, and offer incentives and sales to make sure they sell enough of them to meet their quota.
Once you understand that, you realize that giving each automaker a reserved slice of the subsidy is the only way to make it fair.
... 35k magical car with a 7500 rebate.
Too good to be true I guess.
I'm going to enjoy how Tesla fanboys spin this in Elon's favor.
There are some serious problems with Tesla at all levels but to point them out means one is a "hater".
Whatever...it's like:
"Dude, you're an alcoholic."
"Shut up hater!!"
And the drunk is off scott-free.
I take issue with the government stealing my money based on the whims of a handful- or the masses. If you want to encourage people to buy electric there are other ways to do that besides governmental intervention. You can donate to a cause to encourage people to buy electric- or you can just go buy your electric car. And you say- but it's too expensive. No. It's only too expensive because the government has been stealing your money via this thing called taxes and redistributing it to other people such that you no longer have the money to buy expensive things. Roads are not even the beginning of the issue nor is a sane level of military spending. What is the issue are the numerous wealth redistribution schemes that deprive us all of funds we need to do what government does badly for ourselves. We don't need governments redistributing wealth to fund public schools even if education is a worthwhile cause. The majority can afford to cover the educational costs provided the government stopped stealing the majority's money. The government isn't just schooling the impoverished- which would be a much more worthwhile goal than the redistribution scheme to fund public schools. And I won't personally support the funding of religious schools if you eliminate the funding of public schools or I don't support charter school schemes either. I also wouldn't voluntarily fund the military, but would hire private security for my home and fund a minimum security defense force.
Programme was established under Bush. Energy Improvement and Extension Act of 2008.
So what?! The FACT is that little people like ME subsidies the rich.
I don't give a shit about WHO did it- just the FACT that I am getting screwed.
Unbelievable.
Subsidies exist to convince people to buy something they need convincing to own.
That was every electric car before the Tesla. If you couldn't get a $7k rebate, there was no reason to put up with the nonsense like super limited range or performance.
Tesla, to my mind, built the first electric car that is simply desirable to own outright - as such the rebate was merely a nice bonus, but no rebate will hardly slow sales. That's because the styling is good (well the Model 3 is anyway, I don't like the styling of the other cars), the performance is amazing, and they have a range option that is large enough to make the Tesla a serious road trip car and eliminate range anxiety.
If I didn't have zero reason at the moment to be buying a new car, I would be jumping at getting a Model 3. If I had any reason to be buying a car it would be one of the few I would consider looking at.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Here in Ontario , the newly elected Progressive Conservative government cancelled any tax incentives for electric cars, starting September. But that is only when you buy the car through a dealer. If you buy the car directly (like all Teslas are), the incentives are cancelled immediately, leaving those who ordered Teslas on the hook for C$14,000 more.
The PC government also cancelled a large wind project, with hefty penalties expected, and cancelled the carbon trading system, which provided C$100 million for schools. No tax credits for retrofitting homes for more power efficiency (insulation, windows, furnaces, ...etc.)
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I agree with you to a point. At the moment, Tesla is selling Model 3s at around $50,000. If, if, they start selling the $35,000 version, I'll fully agree with you.
Workaround: Instantiate a new auto manufacturer. New auto manufacturer gets itself certified for the subsidy. New auto manufacturer acquires or licenses/rents old manufacturer's tech and infrastructure and customer contact lists, "poaches" most of old manufacturer's employees, re-brands the product, and continues all operations with little or no procedural alterations. Then once the subsidy expires again, the two auto manufacturers merge and the process repeats.
That was every electric car before the Tesla. If you couldn't get a $7k rebate, there was no reason to put up with the nonsense like super limited range or performance.
Nope. The problem was they were almost entirely not for sale at any price. GM destroyed their EV1s. Other companies behaved similarly. Toyota barely managed to make a few hundred RAV EVs for sale and all of them were sold.
Sorry, but that's the reality.
if they had added to the incentives a plan to aim them at the middle class, the car companies would have been incented to make electric cars the middle class could afford.
The subsidies were not really aimed at consumers - they were clearly put in place to encourage the wealthy car executives who supported Obama and the virtue signalling rich liberals in places like greater San Francisco. When all is said and done, it will become clear that this was yet another wealth transfer program from the middle class to the wealthy - and that will be no surprise given its parentage within both the Bush43 and Obama admins.
As a right-wing geek, I am all for regular cars, electric cars, solar panels, windmills, nat gas plants, coal-fired plants, nuclear plants, tide power, hydroelectric dams, oil-burning ships, wind-driven ships, nuclear powered ships, etc. The TECHNICALLY best solutions should win in a free market, producing the most-efficient economy and society.
I want every technical solution to a problem to be tried, and on a level playing ground un-distorted by ideological partisan political government manipulation that is planned and implemented by lobbyists and armies of bribed lawyers. I want scientists, engineers, hobbyists and yes even billionaires to be as free as possible to experiment and to innovate and I care little for whether they are puttering with a pet project that will never do more than make a handful of users happy or whether they are pouring billions into a project they hope will remake the world - I want maximum freedom and liberty, which will provide maximum innovation and ultimately maximum choice for end users.
The people that want them can afford them and would buy them without the government subsidy.
U still at it troll?
The PC government also cancelled a large wind project, with hefty penalties expected, and cancelled the carbon trading system, which provided C$100 million for schools
Wow, 100 million for absolutely nothing,, not ripped from the pocketbooks of anyone, no sir, it was totally free!
No tax credits for retrofitting homes for more power efficiency (insulation, windows, furnaces, ...etc.)
I'm doing that with no credits because it saves me money. More power efficient windows and furnaces have an inherent value because they are cheaper - again why are you stealing from others to give money to people well off enough to afford homes?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
At $95+ thousand per car, only the well to do can afford it practically. The average middle to low income family who drives an auto that is fuel INEFFICIENT will never be able to make a dent in the fossil fuel issues at that price regardless how many Prius they drive. This credit was only to assist getting the production off to a good start and that it has done. Now stop subsidizing the rich. I thought we hated the rich 1%'ers on /.??
This post is merely a click bait for flame war.
I just wish Tesla would hire someone that had some sense of style, would love to own one if they didn't all look like steaming turds, even the top end ones look bloody boring and styled like the designers were on a budget and had to make everything as generic as possible.
they're already subsidized for good in most of the world. the co2 taxes on cars are usually structured so that electric cars get an almost free pass.
that's also why you're seeing so much hybrids, to get low emissions during the standard test run. the hybrid system pays for itself.
the joke with tesla is the "taking delivery of their car" part.. buy a car without knowing if the price is 7500 higher or not haha
Seriously? You look at other EVs, like a Bolt, a Leaf, etc, then look at a Model 3 and think "that looks like a steaming turd"?
I'm... baffled. To say the least.
The big brain am winning again! I am the greetist! Now I am leaving for no particular raisin!
Tesla is teetering on the edge, and their cars are about to become more expensive than similar competitors. I wonder if the established manufacturers were simply playing the long game while Tesla continued to extend themselves.
I'm sure i'm part of the short conspiracy according to the fanbois.
"Put in place early on in the Obama administration, the tax credit was seen as a tool that could be used to subsidize failing automakers by giving them a handout in the form of a tax credit to consumers, which could simply be folded into the price of an electric vehicle."
Which is exactly what happened. The day the tax credit took effect, the MSRP of a Prius increased, almost magically, by exactly $7500.
I tried the article and the sources but I couldn't find the details on the tax credit. The article implies the tax credit will be removed only from those who buy Teslas but will remain for other electric cars.
I assumed from the headline that it was a tax credit on making the cars which it would make sense to make. But a tax credit on BUYING the cars... that just incentivizes someone to not be first but be prepared to be second. Because of exactly moments like this when Tesla prices skyrocket and you can sweep in with your cheaper price and an already established eco system and social narrative constructed.
Why not just remove the tax incentives from all the companies at the same time (whatever time that is). This encourages someone to be first because they'll enjoy the credit the longest. Rather than now with Tesla having done a majority of the work establishing the viability of the electric car to the public and now the other auto makers who weren't able to do that will be able to reap the Tax Credit now that the market has been taught to want their new product. Whatever congress passed this incentive was idiotic.
Just another second banana
"Tesla on track to be first automaker to sell 200,000 electric cars"
Ken
When a $5k subsidy in Georgia ended, electric car sales dropped from as many as 1400/month to less than 100/month. That's a pretty clear demonstration they aren't nearly as wanted without the government stepping in to pay people to buy them.
The party of stupid and the party of evil get together and do something both stupid and evil, then call it bipartisan.