With Tesla likely to hit 200,000 electric cars sold in the U.S. later this year, it will begin a phasedown process during which the income-tax credits available to its buyers start to dwindle on a set schedule. General Motors is likely to hit the same cap a couple of quarters after Tesla. Now those two companies are lobbying for an expansion of... Automakers, electric utilities want electric-car tax credit extended
With Tesla likely to hit 200,000 electric cars sold in the U.S. later this year, it will begin a phasedown process during which the income-tax credits available to its buyers start to dwindle on a set schedule. General Motors is likely to hit the same cap a couple of quarters after Tesla. Now those two companies are lobbying for an expansion of... 
It's been a topic of discussion for years: What will happen when a carmaker reaches the cap on U.S. sales of electric cars that qualify for the full federal tax credit of $7,500? That number is 200,000; after the rest of that calendar quarter and the one following, the credit is halved for a further two quarters. Rough calculations indicate that... 
Toward the end of last year, electric-car shoppers began to think about a U.S. market without the $7,500 federal tax credit for their purchases of plug-in vehicles. While the tax credit ended up surviving the massive tax-cut bill passed in December, some automakers are still about to face the end of the incentive. As designed and implemented in... 
A major contributor to electric-car sales is the program under which buyers of new electric cars qualify for a federal income-tax credit of up to $7,500. But these tax credits are not unlimited. Once a manufacturer reaches sales of 200,000 plug-in electric cars (after December 31, 2009), the credits start to phase out for that company's cars... ![2015 Nissan Leaf charging back at home after 1,000-mile road trip [photo John Briggs]](https://images.hgmsites.net/tmb/2015-nissan-leaf-charging-back-at-home-after-1000-mile-road-trip-photo-john-briggs_100558587_t.gif)
Fears that Congress would kill the federal tax credit for purchase of a plug-in electric car were laid to rest in December when that incentive survived the $1.5 billion tax-cut bill. Now Congress has added back a handful of other tax credits related to electric cars and greener transportation in the $400 billion budget bill it passed in the wee... ![Chevrolet Bolt EV being charged outside Go Forth electric-car showroom, Portland [photo: Forth]](https://images.hgmsites.net/tmb/chevrolet-bolt-ev-being-charged-outside-go-forth-electric-car-showroom-portland-photo-forth_100606247_t.gif)
In less than three months, personal income-tax returns or 2017 will be due for most U.S. adults. Some of those taxpayers will have bought a plug-in electric car last year, knowing that the Federal government offers an income-tax credit to help reduce the effective cost. But as more and more electric cars hit the roads, will electric-car shoppers... 
Several years ago, Georgia offered a generous state-tax credit for purchase of a zero-emission vehicle, and its sales of electric cars boomed. When state politics interceded to kill that credit in 2015—and add a new tax specifically on those same vehicles—the state became a case study on what happens when such incentives are suddenly... 
Rather to the surprise of electric-car advocates, the massive tax bill passed by the U.S. Congress in December did not eliminate the federal tax credit for purchase of a plug-in electric vehicle. That credit lets buyers take a credit of $2,500 to $7,500 on their income-tax filing in the year of purchase. Now, financial columnist James Stewart has... ![Virginia State Capitol, Skip Plitt/C'ville Photography [CC BY-SA 3.0]](https://images.hgmsites.net/tmb/virginia-state-capitol-skip-plitt-cville-photography-cc-by-sa-3-0_100638890_t.gif)
Virginia is for lovers—and it may soon be for lovers of electric cars and plug-in hybrids, too. Virginia House Delegate David A. Reid [D-32nd] has proposed a bill, expected to hit the House floor Wednesday, that would see buyers of electric vehicles receive a state-tax rebate of up to $3,500. Currently, Virginia's green-car incentives are... 
The tax reform bill likely to be voted on by the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives retained a number of provisions originally slated to be cut from the tax code. Among them was the federal income-tax credit for purchase of a plug-in electric vehicle. Three carmakers—General Motors, Nissan, and Tesla—have now used more than half... 
Two bills from the Senate and House of Representatives that would radically reform U.S. tax policy for the first time in three decades are now being reconciled by a joint committee from both houses of Congress. No public hearings on those bills have been held in either chamber, and the legislation is closely guarded. It would be fair to call the... 
Common wisdom has it that the last few days of any calendar year are the best time to buy a car. Not only are franchised dealers and their salespeople seeking to close out the month with a bang, but it's the end of a year and their allocation of cars next year can depend on how many they sell this year. In other words: bargains may be there for... ![The White House, Washington, D.C. [Creative Commons license by dcjohn]](https://images.hgmsites.net/tmb/white-house_100170583_t.gif)
The United States tax code hasn't seen a major overhaul in decades, and the current Congress—along with the Trump administration—may be learning, or re-learning, why. Numerous opponents have moved swiftly to condemn various aspects of the draft Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (HR1) proposed in the House of Representatives, released last... 
The U.S. federal income-tax credit for purchase of an electric car has seen its share of attacks over the years. Now a new video seeks to twist the facts to paint those subsidies in a bad light. While facts don't lie, it's easy to create a new narrative by taking carefully chosen facts out of context and presenting only a small part of a broader... 
The state of California has a long track record of supporting electric cars and doing everything possible to ensure plug-in vehicles can be obtained by the largest number of drivers. Aside from the Federal income-tax credits available nationally, the state of California has its own purchase rebates. Local utilities have also begun to incentivize... 
The electric-car market may be in for a serious downturn when current federal tax incentives end, assuming the Trump administration declines to extend them, according to a new analysis. In 2010, the government began offering tax credits of $2,500 to $7,500 to the first 200,000 U.S. buyers of plug-in electric vehicles from each automaker. Those... 
The state of Nevada has been fairly generous to startup electric-car makers that pledge to establish manufacturing operations within its borders. After offering a generous incentive package several years ago, the Silver State landed Tesla's lithium-ion battery "Gigafactory," which is now up and running just outside Reno. Then it lured the...