Here are the cars eligible for the $7,500 EV tax credit in the Inflation Reduction Act
The Inflation Reduction Act, the major climate bill, was signed today, changing the availability of electric vehicle tax credits. Now, only EVs assembled in North America qualify for the credits. Today the US government released a preliminary list of which vehicles currently qualify for the $7,500 EV tax credit.
There are a number of provisions in the new climate bill affecting the availability of EV credits, and those provisions will phase in over the coming months and years. Most of them are focused on bringing more EV and battery production to the US.
But the phase-in times of various provisions have created a lot of confusion in the EV community about which vehicles will qualify and when.
The Department of Energy’s Alternative Fuels Data Center has released the list of vehicles with final assembly in North America, and we’ve copied the list below.
We’ve added links where possible so you can search local dealer inventory for the car you’re looking for. We’ve also added our own notes in the “note” column to clarify which models qualify.
The list does include vehicles that are assembled in North America but for which the manufacturers are currently over the 200K unit cap on the previous credit. That cap is lifted on January 1, 2023, so cars tagged as “manufacturer sales cap met” will not qualify for the electric car tax credit until next year.
Note that this list is not written in stone, and will change with the phase-in of other provisions of the new EV tax credit or as manufacturers change their production plans (for example, VW moving 2023 ID.4 production to Tennessee). We can’t guarantee that any given customer will get access to the credit and are providing the best information we can.
Further, some models may change production mid-year or are based on specific trim levels, so you should confirm that your individual vehicle was assembled in a North American plant. The AFDC recommends that you use the NHTSA VIN decoder on your VIN to confirm that it was assembled in North America. The country name of the final assembly plant can be found under “plant information” at the bottom of the page.
Additionally, the IRS has released a page explaining section 30D of the Internal Revenue Code, which is the section that contains the EV tax credit. This includes a description of what a “written binding contract” is, which allowed EV buyers to take the “old” credit if they signed a purchase contract before the day the IRA was signed (today).
Other requirements which have not yet phased in include battery material and critical mineral sourcing guidelines that will be developed by the IRS. The IRS must issue those guidelines by the end of this year, but from the language on the page, it feels like the IRS probably won’t issue them until December 31 (or maybe that’s just wishful thinking on our part).
Some vehicles will not qualify for the EV tax credit once the IRS issues its guidance, due to being above the $55K MSRP cap for cars and $80K MSRP cap for trucks. Income caps will also be put into place, meaning those earning over $150K ($225K head of household, $300K filing jointly) will not qualify.
There’s also a provision to allow buyers to take advantage of the EV tax credit upfront at the point of sale, but from our reading of the bill, that doesn’t seem to go into place until 2024. The $4,000 used vehicle credit starts in 2023, as does a commercial vehicle credit.
Electrek’s Take
The confusing nature of these new EV tax credits is unfortunate, and we wish their implementation was made a little simpler and a little less sudden. But given the difficult political situation regarding the passing of the bill, once the Senate reached a breakthrough, nobody wanted to touch the bill’s language. So, unfortunately, with half of the Senate unwilling to support any legislation that might help Americans, we got what we got.
We hope the IRS will make implementation of the new EV tax credits easier by phasing everything in at the same time, and will be responsive to public comments, which we’ll inform you about when they become available.
The number of plug-in hybrids on the list is a little unfortunate – it feels like hybrids should get a smaller portion of the credits than full EVs. But considering the battery-supply-constrained environment we’re in, PHEVs do manage to electrify more vehicles per kWh than BEVs do. So as long as people are plugging in their PHEVs and not just using the engine, they’re still a beneficial thing in terms of decarbonization.
Also, PHEV sales levels have been low for years and aren’t rising, whereas BEVs are. All-electric is just a more pleasurable experience, so we still expect this will result in fewer ICE engines on the road.
Overall, despite these difficulties, the goals of the legislation will help to address the challenges EVs are having right now (mostly supply challenges), will encourage more environmentally and socially responsible sourcing of materials, and should apply to far more individual cars on the road than the previous legislation due to removal of the per-manufacturer cap and extension for another decade.
While we’ll have some growing pains with the new EV tax credit’s structure in the coming months and years, the law includes some much-needed changes to the tax credit which should help the industry as a whole, along with lots of other climate spending and action to help bring emissions down and improve the US’s position in the green energy economy of the future, so on balance, we’re happy about the law. It’s nice to see big climate action for once. Now we just need to push for more.
Frequently Asked Questions on the EV tax credit
Cars assembled in North America can qualify for up to $7,500 in federal EV tax credits – $3,750 if the battery components were built in North America, and $3,750 if “critical minerals” in the battery are sourced from the US or countries the US has free trade agreements with.
It has already started, though various provisions will phase in over the next months and years. The $55k/$80k price caps and 150k/300 income cap go into effect in 2023, and GM and Tesla vehicles will start qualifying for renewed credits in 2023. Cars assembled outside of NA already do not qualify for tax credits, unless a purchase agreement was signed before 8/16/22. Battery component restrictions go into effect in 2023 as well.
NA-assembled cars qualify for the EV tax credit, though in 2023 this will start depending on their price and where their battery components and critical minerals were sourced. The table above in this article shows a list of EVs and PHEVs assembled in NA, though we won’t know specifics on battery components and critical minerals until the IRS issues their guidance at end of year.
The IRS will release a form (this is last year’s) to fill out and file with your tax return. Starting in 2024, the credit will be claimable upfront at the time of purchase, without needing to file a tax return after the fact. The IRS is still working out the specifics.
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Southern California truck spotters will have plenty of electric semi trucks to watch out for as Amazon adds fifty Class 8 EVs to its commercial fleet.
The fully electric Volvo semi trucks purchased will haul both heavy cargo containers and customer package loads in Amazon’s first- and middle-mile operations in California. The trucks will join the hundreds of last-mile electric vans from Ford and Rivian that are already delivering packages across the golden state.
These are the first-ever electric trucks in the company’s ocean freight operations, also known as drayage operations. They’ve already started hitting the road at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, with a dozen expected to be in service by the end of the year.
“We’re proud to launch our largest fleet of electric heavy-duty vehicles yet in California,” said Udit Madan, vice president of Worldwide Amazon Operations. “Heavy-duty trucking is a particularly difficult area to decarbonize, which makes us all the more excited to have these vehicles on the road today. We’ll use what we learn from deploying these vehicles as we continue to identify and invest in solutions to reduce emissions in our transportation network, and to impact sustainability in the trucking industry more broadly.”
Amazon picks Volvo VNR Electric semi
Amazon’s electric semi of choice this time is the Volvo VNR Electric. These class 8 trucks have a range of up to 275 miles with a gross combined vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of 82,000 pounds. The heavy-duty Volvo trucks ship with a number of safety features that will be familiar to Volvo Car owners, including active collision mitigation, blind-spot detection, lane departure warning, lane keeping assist, and adaptive cruise control.
Altogether, the Volvo VNRs Amazon just added to its fleet are projected to travel more than 1 million miles each year with zero harmful carbon and diesel particulate emissions coming out of their exhaust pipes.
Electrek’s Take
On the one hand, Amazon is making a big deal out of buying electric drayage trucks – which isn’t really big a deal in 2024, since that’s a legal requirement at this point. You literally can’t buy a new, internal combustion drayage truck in California as of this year.
That said, I’m a “celebrate every positive change” kind of guy, and the people who live and work around Amazon’s operations will be literally and figuratively breathing easier with these trucks in operation. As such, I’m willing to give California Governor Gavin Newsom a victory lap.
“California continues to lead the way in setting world-leading climate goals. No other state has created the kind of environment where Amazon and other businesses can lead on sustainability and take major steps forward like deploying this fleet of electric trucks,” said Gavin, in a statement. “California’s climate action continues powering our economy and creating jobs.”
SOURCE | IMAGES: Amazon.
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Thanks to the $10,000 Polestar Clean Vehicle Incentive introduced last week, 2024 Polestar 2 lease prices are now over $120 a month cheaper.
CarsDirect reports that through May 31, the 2024 Polestar 2 Long Range Dual Motor can be leased for $299 for 27 months with $3,299 due at signing.
The auto research portal says that’s a $50 drop in the monthly payment with $2,050 less required at signing. As a result, the effective cost fell $126, from $547 per month to $421 before taxes & fees.
The Polestar 2 Dual Motor – list price $55,300 – is a much better deal to lease than the Single Motor model – list price $49,900 – because amazingly, they have the same lease price. That’s basically a free upgrade to the Dual Motor model.
The Polestar 2 first made its debut in 2019 as the automaker’s first fully electric car. It launched in mid-2020 and the milestone 150,000th car rolled off the assembly line in August 2023.
The Polestar 2 is expected to be phased out in 2027, and company says the Polestar 7 will succeed it.
Click here to find a local dealer that may have the Polestar 2 in stock. –affiliate*
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