EV Credits Mostly Go Towards Rich People Who Would Buy EVs Anyway

[b4black]

https://jalopnik.com/ev-credits-mostly-go-towards-rich-people-who-would-buy-1835233701

From the study:
Our results suggest that vehicles that EVs replace are relatively fuel-efficient: EVs replace gasoline vehicles with an average fuel economy of 4.2 mpg above the fleet-wide average and 12 percent of them replace hybrid vehicles. Federal income tax credits resulted in a 29 percent increase in EV sales, but 70 percent of the credits were obtained by households that would have bought an EV without the credits.

And, for the 109,449 EVs purchased in 2014:
Among gasoline vehicles replaced by EVs, 74 percent of them have fuel economy above 25 mpg. The vehicle models that were replaced by EVs most are: Honda Accord, Toyota Prius, Toyota Camry, Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla, Nissan Altima, and Chevrolet Cruze. This substitution pattern suggests that EVs mainly attracted consumers who were originally choosing mid-size and fuel-efficient gasoline or hybrid vehicles, rather than gas-guzzlers such as large SUVs or trucks.

Click to read more...

 

[Stink Star]

Depends on how you define “rich” but kind of a “duh” article. First off EVs are more expensive than most regular cars- that alone means more rich people buy them. Also, to even qualify for the full $7500 tax rebate you have to have paid more than 7500 in federal tax. Most people would call somebody “rich” that could get the whole 7500 back.

 

[sickmint79]

i've been arguing those are shitty for years, not only do they go to wealthier people, but they also reward having a lot of batteries. whereas a proper carrot/stick should punish inefficiency, not reward a particular technology.

 

[Chet Donnelly]

I always thought it was insane they were offering the tax credit no matter how expensive the car was. Who thought it was a good idea to offer a huge tax credit to someone buying a $50k or $100k Tesla?

 

[sickmint79]

Depends on how you define “rich” but kind of a “duh” article. First off EVs are more expensive than most regular cars- that alone means more rich people buy them. Also, to even qualify for the full $7500 tax rebate you have to have paid more than 7500 in federal tax. Most people would call somebody “rich” that could get the whole 7500 back.

https://www.realclearenergy.org/art...funnel_taxpayer_money_to_the_rich_110392.html

2017 it appears: "Americans in the top 20 percent of income earners received about 90 percent of the federal tax credits for electric vehicles, according to a study by the Energy Institute at Haas-Berkeley."

i played around with https://dqydj.com/household-income-percentile-calculator/

and that looks to be a 128k income tax filing, which single filer would be around 27k in taxes being paid.

i really don't believe this (***minimum***) person should be getting subsidized 7500 to buy a 50 60 70 80k car, and if the government is making an incentive it should be on punishing waste, not rewarding batteries. the net green effect of even replacing gassers with EVs as noted above is arguably quite small because they are not even replacing nasty gassers at that.

 

[Mr_Roboto]

https://www.realclearenergy.org/art...funnel_taxpayer_money_to_the_rich_110392.html
i really don't believe this (***minimum***) person should be getting subsidized 7500 to buy a 50 60 70 80k car, and if the government is making an incentive it should be on punishing waste, not rewarding batteries. the net green effect of even replacing gassers with EVs as noted above is arguably quite small because they are not even replacing nasty gassers at that.

I wouldn't be surprised if part of that is the workload a typical EV in production is currently designed for. As an example, the Escalade. I have that's going to tow my RV isn't going to be replaced by a Tesla or a Volt. Even if you have some soccer moms driving a basic Accord it's going to make over 25 MPG. Shit my neighbor with a late model Tahoe says he typically broke 25. Also I would suspect a lot of the people that would buy one wouldn't own an older, lower MPG car in many cases.

I think the idea that you're going to replace a 15mpg F150 with a Tesla is a flawed premise.

 

[Stink Star]

So what about the 600 billion a year in tax subsidies from the US going to petroleum companies? Ever wonder why gasoline is 5x more expensive in Europe?

 

[sickmint79]

So what about the 600 billion a year in tax subsidies from the US going to petroleum companies? Ever wonder why gasoline is 5x more expensive in Europe?

that seems a lot trickier path as how many of those are general business subsidies? plus gov tacks on a lot of tax to gas too. just europe does a lot more. also europe does not have a particularly large endowment of oil and must get it from friendly neighbors like russia.

in any case i'd prefer taxing gas vs. rewarding batteries in different ways as it is punishing inefficiency and not picking a winner.

 

[b4black]

Ever wonder why gasoline is 5x more expensive in Europe?

Simple, taxes.

Quick google search:

Currently, the federal government levies a $0.184 per gallon tax on gasoline. In addition, state and local governments levy an average gas tax per gallon of about $0.35. This is an average combined rate of about $0.53 a gallon.
The U.S. combined gas tax rate is actually a lot lower than rates in other industrialized countries. According to data from the OECD, the average gas tax rate among the 34 advanced economies is $2.62 per gallon. In fact, the U.S.’s gas tax is the second lowest (Mexico is the only country without a gas tax) and has a rate less than half of that of the next highest country, Canada, which has a rate of $1.25 per gallon.

https://taxfoundation.org/how-high-are-other-nations-gas-taxes/