Tesla Customers Will Soon Lose Federal Tax Credit For Electric Cars

Tesla customers have so far been able to avail the full $7,500 federal tax credit for electric cars but that’s going to change soon. Tesla has already delivered its 200,000th electric vehicle this month which has triggered a gradual phase-out of the tax credit for the company’s customers.

Prospective customers could take advantage of the full $7,500 federal tax credit for electric cars before but that’s no longer going to be the case by January 1st because by then the tax credit amount would have been cut in half.

Tesla’s website mentions that customers who take delivery of their electric car on or before December 31st, 2018 will get the full $7,500 credit. Starting January 1st, this amount will be halved and customers will only get a credit of $3,750. This will only be for six months because starting July 1st, 2019 the credit will be further halved to $1,875.

Tesla has made the change on its vehicle incentives support page even though it hasn’t commented on whether or not the company has touched the tax credit ceiling for electric cars. It’s going to be the first car manufacturer to reach this ceiling with its all-electric cars.

This is bad news for the hundreds of thousands of customers who are still in line for the $35,000 base model of the Tesla Model 3. Their cars won’t arrive until 2019 which means they won’t be eligible for the full federal tax credit.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: Transportation
Tags: Tesla