Is it possible to quantify the per-car value of the support Tesla receives from the government (that would be the taxpayer)? I know they get loan guarantees and fuel mileage credits. And do not the purchasers get a tax credit?
Tesla purchasers get a $7,500 income tax credit but that is only for the first 200,000 cars made.
Tesla paid back its $465 million Department of Energy loan in 2013. AFAIK they have no other government debt outstanding.
The federal tax benefit for buyers of EVs up to $7500. Of course if you’re not paying more than $7500 in income taxes to begin with, you don’t get the whole credit. (And there is no carryover.) But most buyers of Teslas have pretty fat wallets. Your state may have additional incentives of their own.
Not sure what you mean by fuel mileage credits.
this. People who can afford an $80,000 car probably don’t get the full credit.
Everybody who owns an EV gets a fuel mileage credit because they’re not paying the taxes on gasoline. If you think of the average car getting 25 mpg and an average of 12,000 miles traveled per year then that’s 480 gallons/year times roughly 50 cents a gallon for a savings of $240/yr.
YMMV
the loans Tesla received, and the incentives buyers are offered are available to any automaker. There was a similar tax credit for buying a Chevy Volt, but being a plug-in hybrid it was less than $7500.
That quite a nonsense definition of tax credit. If you bike or walk or take public transportation doesn’t mean you are getting a tax credit. Not paying taxes on what you don’t consume does not mean you are getting a tax credit.
We’re not talking about biking or walking. they don’t damage roads. We’re talking about cars and trucks. In order to pay for roads we add state and federal taxes to cover that.
If you’re driving a car and don’t use gasoline or pay a mileage tax then that is a tax credit. At some point in the near future that tax will be levied in a manner that covers EV’s.
Road construction and maintenance costs are paid out the general funds of the respective government that has jurisdiction over a particular road. Gas taxes do not go into any special fund or account to pay for roads, and the amounts gathered do not come anywhere close to covering the actual road maintenance expenditures. If you furthermore add the subsidies given to the petrochemical and oils exploration companies both through direct subsidies, licensing of land for oil exploration at ridiculously low prices, and an immunity to being sued for damages incurred during normal business operation (such as spills, out gassing, flare ups, etc) then it’s not even comparable to any new clean tech company trying to create a new market.
:rolleyes:
The 1956 Act directed federal fuel tax to the fund to be used exclusively for highway construction and maintenance.