Chevrolet To Lose EV Tax Credits In Early 2019 - Are The Products Good Enough To Stand On Their Own?

Despite all the breathless hype of the fanboys here, EVs still represent a TINY portion of automotive sales. The fact is that EVs that cost double of what a comparable ICE vehicle costs will be a tough sell. I believe Porsche and Audi will go gangbusters and that GM, Nissan, and Tesla will stumble.

EV's are a premium, I go so far as to say, novelty product at this point.

Entry level ones will be mostly snapped up by governments (in NYC, I'd say the Parks Department operates the majority of cheap (i.e. non-Tesla) EV's in the 5 boroughs of NYC). NYC Parks has the real estate to set up a charging infrastructure for their fleet of tree huggers who smugly drive around in their EV's.

Real, working people with real lives (i.e. families, road trips, budget constraints, parking issues, etc) will just buy Highlanders and Camry's (or equivalent).

Broncos, Broncos I tell you.

As has been noted before - the Bronco was not a beloved vehicle - it was small - short - jumpy - poor riding - underpowered - ANd ALthough most people who might have owned one are likely not going to buy a new one - I do not see the Bronco as the answer to any question I have seen so far.

AS far as GM and EVs - Tesla and Nissan have the same problem too. AND - they will be at a distinct disadvantage to manufacturers who CAN still offer the buyer a $7500 rebate. While it would not surprise me if trump extended that for American Made vehicles - otherwise it is dead. And GM has NO compelling vehicle that could survive without the rebates.

However - it still has NOT BEEN SHOWN that there is a major market for EV's - and I believe it is minor - not major - at this time.

The tax credits will still be available- they just start to phase out. The $7500 tax writeoff is good for one financial quarter after the 200,000 unit level is achieved. The amount then becomes $3750 for the next half year, $1875 for the next half year, and then nothing. If GM hits the 200,000 unit in Jan 2019 then the $7500 would be good until June 30, 2019. The until Dec 31 it would be $3750, etc. In the case of Tesla the $7500 is good until Dec 31 2018. You can then write off $3750 if you buy a Tesla until June 30, 2019, etc. So both Tesla and GM still have a year or more of appreciable tax writeoffs... they just start to trail off. The big huge giant oil company tax writeoffs never seem to expire, totalling in the hundreds of Billions $$$. Those oil company execs get their oil drilling tax benefits year after year after year. If the oil companies can get THEIR “welfare” , then the EV industry can too.

The problem with your OIL COmpany argument - is that these are essentially opposing political views - helping Oil Companies is Conservative - and Helping EV buyers is Liberal. Like it or not - we still have a conservative (Certainly not liberal at least) white house for the next two years. Even if the Liberals took the House this fall - they will likely NOT take the Senate at 60 votes (Filibuster level) - leaving no consensus to deal with that notion.

I have a question I am not sure of

Do the "tax incentives" apply to the BRAND of cars or the Manufacturer overall - I believe the latter to be true - but if it were the Brand - GM could selll Buick EV's - their next model likely will be a Buick.