Trump Administration Seeks to End Electric Vehicle Tax Credit

Larry Kudlow, director of the White House National Economic Council recently announced that the Trump administration will seek an end to electric car and renewable energy tax credits by 2020 or 2021.

Currently, owners of electric vehicles receive a federal tax credit of $7,500 per vehicle. However once a car company sells more than 200,000 cars, this credit begins to phase out. President Trump recently lashed out at General Motors following the closure of several production plants and resulting loss of roughly 15,000 jobs, threatening to cut all subsidies to the motor company. If the current subsidies remain in place, at the current sales rate GM customers in 2020 face receiving no credit whatsoever. Bloomberg explains that the $7,500 credit phases out over a one-year period starting the second calendar quarter after a manufacturer hits the 200,000-vehicle threshold -- a milestone GM is expected to reach in coming months.

Congress has tried to extend the credit through raising the 200,000 vehicle cap in place. However, earlier this week House Republicans introduced legislations that did not include any sort of electric-vehicle tax credit. The Senate has not yet released its version of the legislation, though Senate Finance Committee Chair Orrin Hatch (R-UT) remarked on the possibility of an extension being included in the Senate’s bill.