Tesla has delivered 200,000 vehicles in the United States, exceeding the
threshold above which federal tax credits for EVs start to phase out, a
spokesperson for Tesla said
on Thursday—and its website had its incentives schedule updated.
Under U.S. federal legislation, buyers of EVs enjoy tax incentives of up
to $7,500
per vehicle for a new purchase for use in the United States. This tax credit
is available until 200,000 qualified EVs have been sold in the United States
by each manufacturer, at which point the credit begins to phase out for said
manufacturer.
When an automaker reaches 200,000 EV deliveries, the tax credits begin to
phase out after one full quarter passes following the quarter in which the
car manufacturer has hit the 200,000-delivery mark.
For Tesla, speculation in recent weeks about whether Elon Musk’s EV maker
has or hasn’t reached that figure was nearly as ripe as whether it would be
able to reach the 5,000-per-week Model 3 production target.
At the end of June, Tesla, as well as GM, was said to be very
close to hitting the 200,000 U.S. delivery cap.
According to Bloomberg,
Tesla may have delivered more vehicles to customers outside the U.S. in Q2 in
order to avoid hitting the 200,000 U.S. delivery cap in that quarter and hit
the cap in Q3. Thus, it would have caused the tax credits start to phase out
one full quarter after Q3, so as of January 1, 2019. By hitting the cap on or
after July 1, Tesla would have one additional quarter with full tax credits
that could be worth a combined more than $400 million to Tesla buyers,
Bloomberg has estimated.
Tesla’s Electric Vehicle Incentives page shows
that the federal tax credit of $7,500 is valid for vehicles delivered on or
before December 31, 2018. The tax credits then start to phase out—halved to
$3,750 between January 1 and June 30, 2019, and then again halved to $1,875
from July 1 to December 31, 2019, until they stop.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Safehaven.com
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