Tesla Cybertruck is now eligible for $7,500 tax credit, but for how long?
The current base version of the Tesla Cybertruck is now eligible for a $7,500 federal tax credit in the US.
It should help Tesla move some units amid the electric truck’s demand issues, but not for long as both CEO Elon Musk and President Donald Trump aim to kill the electric vehicle incentive.
When Tesla launched the production version of the Cybertruck in late 2023, it was much more expensive than initially announced. However, Tesla still managed to price the dual motor version just short of $80,000, which happens to be the price limit for an electric SUV or pickup truck to be eligible for the $7,500 federal tax credit.
The automaker first started to deliver the Foundation Series version of the Cybertruck, which starts at $20,000 more, and therefore, buyers didn’t have access to the credit.
However, Tesla started delivering $80,000 non-Foundation Series Cybertrucks in October 2024, but it wasn’t officially eligible for the tax credit for reasons that aren’t clear.
This has now changed.
With an update to the IRS website today, the Cybertruck Dual Motor and Single Motor, the latter is not in production yet, now can qualify for the $7,500 federal tax credit for electric vehicles:
It’s not clear why the Cybertruck wasn’t eligible until now. The government has requirements for a vehicle to be eligible beyond pricing, especially regarding the sourcing of parts and materials.
Cybertruck is the only Tesla vehicle using the automaker’s in-house manufactured battery cells. It’s possible that Tesla needed time to have to get approval for those cells.
Regardless, the tax credit should now help Tesla move more Cybertrucks, which was becoming more difficult, as we previously noted.
Tesla was having issues selling the Cybertruck in the US and even started to buff out Foundation Series badges to sell them as regular Cybertrucks and homologate trucks intended for the US market for Canada.
However, it’s unclear how much the tax credit will help.
The eligibility requirements are not just for the vehicles, but there are also some for the buyers. Single tax filers can’t earn more than $150,000, and $300,000 for dual filers, and higher income people tend to be the ones to buy luxury vehicles like these.
Also, there’s the question of how long the tax credit will be available.
The incoming Trump administration, which is backed by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, has made clear that they want to remove the EV tax credit. However, they will need Congress’ approval, and it’s unclear how fast that can happen and if there will be a phase-out period or not.
Electrek’s Take
While I am seriously against removing EV incentives while the US is still far behind the rest of the world in EV adoption, I do believe that the sentiment of urgency should help Tesla here.
I am sure that some people were waiting for Cybertruck’s eligibility for the tax credit, but it’s hard to estimate how significant this buyer group is currently.
I could see some eligible people waiting for the base version preferring to buy a dual motor with tax credit rather than risk not having access to the tax credit by the time the single motor version becomes available.
Between the referral credit and the tax credit, the Cybertruck now starts really close to $70,000.
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Paris’ bike-share system, Vélib has long been considered one of the shining success stories of urban micromobility. With a massive fleet of over 20,000 pedal and electric-assist bicycles around Paris, the service has helped millions of residents and tourists get around the City of Light without needing a car or scooter. But lately, a growing problem is threatening to knock the wheels off this urban mobility marvel: theft and joyriding.
According to city officials and the service operator, more than 600 Vélib bikes are now going missing every single week. That’s over 30 bikes a day simply vanishing from the system – some stolen outright, others taken on “joy rides” and never returned.
“At the moment we’re missing 3,000 bikes,” explained Sylvain Raifaud, head of the Agemob company that currently operates the Velib system. That’s nearly 15% of over 20,000 Vélib bikes across Paris.
The sticky-fingered culprits aren’t necessarily professional thieves or organized crime rings. Instead, they’re often regular users who treat the shared bikes like disposable toys.
The city estimates that many people have figured out how to pry the bikes out of the system’s parking docks, unlocking one for a casual cruise and then ditching it somewhere far from a docking station.
Once pried free, the bikes are technically usable for the next 24 hours until their automatic locking feature kicks in. At that point, the bikes are often simply abandoned. Some end up in alleyways. Others get tossed in rivers. A few just disappear completely.
And since the bikes are intended to be parked at their many docking stations around the city, they don’t have GPS chips, further complicating recovery of “liberated” bikes.
The issue started small but has grown into more than an inconvenience – it’s beginning to undermine the entire purpose of the service. With bikes going missing at such a high rate, many Vélib docking stations are left empty, especially during rush hours.
Riders looking for a quick commute or a convenient hop across town are increasingly finding themselves without available bikes, or having to walk long distances to find a functioning one.
That kind of unreliability chips away at user confidence and threatens to drive potential riders back into cars, cabs, or other less sustainable forms of transport at a time when Paris has already made great strides to dramatically reduce car usage in the city.
The losses are financially painful, too. Replacing stolen or vandalized bikes isn’t cheap, and the resources spent on tracking down missing equipment or reinforcing anti-theft measures are stretching thin. Vélib has faced theft and vandalism issues before, especially during its early years, but this latest surge has officials sounding the alarm with renewed urgency.
Officials acknowledge that there’s no easy fix. Paris, like many cities with bike-share systems, walks a fine line between accessibility and accountability. Part of what makes Vélib so successful is its ease of use and widespread availability. But those same features make it vulnerable to misuse – especially when enforcement is limited and the consequences for abuse are minimal.
The timing of the problem is especially unfortunate. In recent years, Paris has seen impressive results in reducing car traffic, expanding bike lanes, and promoting cycling as a key part of its sustainable transport strategy. Vélib is a cornerstone of that plan. But if the system becomes too unreliable, it risks losing the very people it was designed to serve.
Meanwhile, as Parisians increasingly find themselves staring at empty docks, the challenge for the city and Vélib will be to restore confidence in the system without making it harder to use. That means striking the right balance between freedom and responsibility, between open access and protection against abuse.
In a city where cycling is supposed to be the future of mobility, losing thousands of bikes to joyriders and sticky fingers isn’t just frustrating; it’s unsustainable.
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