Thousands of auto dealers sign up to offer new on-the-spot tax credit
New year, new rules: As of January 1, things are about to get a little easier when it comes to getting your federal tax credit for buying an electric vehicle. Now the rebate – which is up to $7,500 for new EVs that qualify, and up to $4,000 for used EVs that qualify – is available immediately when you purchase your car, rather than needing to wait potentially months to file a claim with your tax return. And auto dealers are signing up in droves with the IRS.
To help gear up for the insta-credit program, more than 7,000 car dealers have signed up with the Internal Revenue Service to ensure they can offer the point-of-sale rebate to EV buyers starting January 1 – that accounts for nearly half of all new car dealerships in the US, reports Automotive News.
On paper at least, EV buyers pay a reduced fee upfront, while the dealer handles the paperwork with the IRS, and then the EV buyer happily gets behind the wheel and drives away.
Of course, the number of vehicles that qualify for the full rebate, or any rebate, will shrink starting January 1 as well, as President Biden’s new restrictions on electric vehicles and battery sourcing will kick in. To qualify at all, vehicles have to be manufactured in North America with an MSRP under $80,000 for an SUV and $55,000 for a standard or smaller car.
Vehicles can qualify a federal tax credit of $3,750 if automakers adhere to specific guidelines on sourcing battery materials. To get the rebate, 40% of the value of critical minerals used in the battery need to be extracted or processed in the US, or in a country that is a US free trade agreement partner, or they must have been made from recycled materials in North America. Also, a vehicle will qualify for an additional $3,750 if 50% of the value of critical battery components are manufactured or assembled in North America. Those percentages will go up every year until the credit expires in 2032. Additionally, all EVs that contain any battery components from a foreign entity of concern (as in China) will be excluded in 2024, and that rule applies to battery minerals as of 2025.
We’ll get the final word on exactly which vehicles are eligible in January, according to the report. Still, the Ford F-150, Chevrolet Bolt, Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe, Jeep Wrangler 4×3, Rivian R1S and R1T, and maybe the Volkswagen ID.4 are likely to still be eligible for a $7,500 credit in 2024. Tesla’s Long Range and RWD Model 3 variants will no longer qualify, nor will Ford’s Mustang Mach-E, Chevrolet Blazer EV, or the Cadillac Lyriq.
Electrek’s Take
Automobile dealers have, of course, been highly vocal opponents of the transition to electric vehicles, for a host of financially driven reasons, some of them of course justified if you didn’t care at all about carbon emissions. EVs require less maintenance, meaning a cut in after-sales profits, and staff needs to be educated on how to chat up customers about batteries and range, charging infrastructure needs to be installed, etc. Last month, nearly 4,000 car dealerships in the US wrote a letter to President Biden pleading that the government put the brakes on its adoption of EVs, saying customers aren’t interested in buying them and that electric vehicles are piling up on their lots – which left out the detail that new vehicles of all types are piling up as well. So yeah, opposition has been fierce. But maybe this new strategy will shake things up and give dealers a morale boost. It’s an easy incentive for customers to choose an electric vehicle, and this could help more some inventory around to free up space for new vehicles.
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Fancy German-made mid-drives are often considered the premier option for electric bikes, offering higher precision engineering and an overall more sophisticated experience. But they’ve also been quite pricey, at least until Ride1Up began running an incredible sale on its normally $2,195 Prodigy XC electric mountain bike, marked down to just $1,295.
I reviewed the urban version of this bike back when it was at full price, and it was a great buy even at its MSRP. But now with this killer Black Friday price, this is a deal that is unlikely to ever be seen again.
The Class 3 electric bicycle can hit speeds of up to 28 mph (45 km/h), and comes with all the benefits of that nice Brose TF Sprinter mid-drive motor. That means you get the smooth and refined torque sensor-based pedal assist, the color screen, and the higher-end ride quality.
Other nice components found on the bike include the Maxxis Forekaster off-road tires, the Tektro quad-piston hydraulic disc brakes, and the 120mm-travel air suspension fork.
At this price, Ride1Up is almost certainly selling the bike at below cost, meaning you’re getting it for less than it costs the company to build these highly-acclaimed e-bikes.
Why would they do that? Because this is the previous generation of the bike, which was eclipsed by the second-generation Prodigy V2. But hey, if this bike was good enough when it came out a year before the V2 (and it was), then it still a great bike today. For those who don’t need the nicest and newest version of a piece of tech, this is an incredible steal of a deal.
Ride1Up is all but certain to be moving these Prodigy XCs at such a low price to clear up shelf space in their warehouse, so when these are gone, they’re gone for good. And this isn’t only a Black Friday price – the company has been moving these bikes for several months at this crazy sale price. That further underscores that this is a clear-out-the-previous-version sale that will be gone for good when the bikes are gone.
At this price, there’s simply no other German-made mid-drive e-bike out there with the bang-for-buck offered by the $1,295 Prodigy XC right now, that’s for sure.
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Working oil pumps against a sunset sky.
Imaginima | E+ | Getty Images
Higher fuel prices could be in the cards if President-elect Donald Trump follows through with his tariff threats on Canada, according to industry experts, who are skeptical on whether the new levies will ever be implemented.
Trump on Monday pledged to implement additional tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico on day one of his presidency, according to his posts on social media platform Truth Social. He said he would sign an executive order on Jan. 20 imposing a 25% tariff on all imports from Canada and Mexico, a move that may breach the terms of a regional free trade agreement.
Goldman Sachs’ Co-Head of Global Commodities Research Daan Struyven said that if a 25% levy hit Canadian crude exports to the U.S. “that could, in theory, lead to some pretty significant consequences for three groups.”
U.S. refiners who rely on Canadian oil barrels could face lower profit margins, and consumers may potentially face higher prices, surmised Struyven. Lastly, Canadian producers may suffer revenue losses if they are unable to reroute their barrels that would have otherwise gone to the U.S.
America’s imports of Canadian crude oil hit a record of 4.3 million barrels per day in July 2024 after the expansion of Canada’s Trans Mountain pipeline, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
If we were to see a 25% tariff on Canadian energy exports, I think it could have some very significant ramifications for trade flows.
Daan Struyven
Goldman Sachs
Additionally, refiners in the Midwest, which are more adapted to process Canada’s heavy sour crude rather than the low sulfur sweet crude produced domestically, could also have problems switching should the Canadian imports be interrupted, Struyven told journalists at an online conference.
“If we were to see a 25% tariff on Canadian energy exports, I think it could have some very significant ramifications for trade flows,” Struyven said.
Mexico and especially Canada have “notable tightly integrated linkages” with the U.S. when it comes to the oil, natural gas and auto industries, Citigroup wrote in a note following Trump’s announcements this week.
“Absent carve-outs, this would increase costs for U.S. refiners and U.S. consumers,” said the bank’s research team led by Energy Strategist Eric Lee.
However, Goldman highlighted that it is unlikely that the tariffs will be implemented as announced, on the premise that the Trump administration is focused on reducing energy costs.
Trump cannot allow inflation to get out of control in the 15 months before the midterm election season, Viktor Shvets, global strategist at Macquarie Capital, told CNBC. Shvets believes that tariffs are used as a negotiating tool to achieve certain objectives such as strengthening the border.
“I do not believe for a second that there will be a massive increase in overall tariffs because that will represent a tax on U.S. domestic manufacturers. That will also represent a tax on U.S. exporters,” said Shvets.
Canada’s trade bodies have shared their concerns, too.
“As Canadians, we need to be eyes-wide-open on the President-elect’s promise for across-the-board tariffs,” the CEO of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, Lisa Baiton, reportedly said.
Danielle Smith, the premier of Alberta which accounts for the largest production of crude in Canada, said that the Trump administration has “valid concerns related to illegal activities at our shared border,” and urged the federal government to resolve said issues immediately to avoid any “unnecessary tariffs” on Canadian exports.
On today’s fact-checking episode of Quick Charge, we’ve got a showdown brewing between California Governor Gavin Newsom and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, an updated 650 hp Kia EV6 GT that’s ready to take on the world, and some sweet deals on battery-powered goodies.
We’ve also got new electric buses at UCLA that are powered by inductive current in the road itself, and a massive new solar project on a site more famous for coal than clean. All this and a little bit of fact-checking on some fresh musky nonsense – enjoy!
Today’s episode is sponsored by BLUETTI, a leading provider of portable power stations, solar generators, and energy storage systems. For a limited time, save up to 52% during BLUETTI’s exclusive Black Friday sale, now through November 28, and be sure to use promo code BLUETTI5OFF for 5% off all power stations site wide. Learn more at this link.
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Read more: E-quipment highlight | Palfinger FLS 25 eDRIVE truck mounted forklift.
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