GCR: Conservative poll says Americans resent electric-car tax credits

Results of a study released Tuesday by the American Energy Alliance found that most voters object to tax credits for electric cars.

Tellingly, the poll also shows that the public generally supports electric cars themselves.

Two-thirds said they are better for the environment than than gasoline powered cars, and 50 percent (a plurality) named that as the best reason to support the sale of electric vehicles, followed by 34 percent who said they reduce dependence on foreign oil. . . .

When it comes to tax credits the poll again split the sample between two different groups. One group, who has told, "The federal government pays everyone who buys an electric vehicle 75 hundred dollars," skewed toward saying that was "about right" (27 percent).

A second group, who was told "Taxpayers pay everyone who buys an electric vehicle 75 hundred dollars through a federal tax credit," skewed toward saying that was "way too much" (29 percent).

Respondents who where reminded by the questioner that they have some skin in the game were much more likely say the tax credits are too high.

Critics call this "push polling," setting up the question to lead respondents to the answer the pollsters favor.

The wording of both questions falls short of being precisely accurate, since not all electric car buyers qualify for the full tax credit.

When asked generally whether taxpayers should subsidize electric vehicles, 59 percent said no. That number rose to 67 percent when respondents were asked whether they thought they should help pay for people to buy electric vehicles.

The survey also asked respondents specifically whether wealthy people should get the same $7,500 tax credit as others. A slim majority, 55 percent, said no. The prompt leading to the question noted that the average electric car buyer makes $150,000 a year.

Writing in DeSmog Blog, Mark Renburke, executive director of Drive Electric America, disputed those figures, noting that 80 percent of electric cars are leased, and that only 38 percent of lessees earn more than $100,000 a year. . . .

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GRA said:

https://www.greencarreports.com/new...ays-americans-resent-electric-car-tax-credits

Results of a study released Tuesday by the American Energy Alliance found that most voters object to tax credits for electric cars.

Tellingly, the poll also shows that the public generally supports electric cars themselves...

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Pretty much as you'd expect. People don't like it when other people, especially people richer than they are, benefit from their taxes.

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The $366 Million Subsidy Play, Part 2

In my previous post I wrote about Tesla's attempt to prolong the $7,500 U.S. incentive for electric cars by pushing sales into the next quarter. A reader on Twitter who goes by the handle @Smack_Check did the math on how much such an effort would be worth to Tesla's customers: $366 million.

That's the value of additional credits available if Tesla waits just one day (July 1, instead of June 30) to record its 200,000th sale in the U.S. Here are @Smack_Check's fairly conservative assumptions:

Tesla will produce an average of 5,000 cars a week in the third quarter, all models combined (that means about 3,000 Model 3s/week, on average).
Each quarter after that, total weekly production will rise by 1,000.
U.S. sales will account for half of all Tesla sales worldwide during the subsidy period...

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Tesla's 200K Strategy

It's pretty clear that Tesla is likely suppressing U.S. sales as the quarter ends so as to extend its federal electric-vehicle subsidy of $7,500 per car. The question is: How exactly is Tesla going about it, and how will it affect quarterly figures that will be reported in the next few weeks?...

The U.S. subsidy is critical for maximizing Tesla’s total addressable market of car buyers, so even if the number is in the tens of thousands, it's probably worth the effort.

A major push to keep the subsidy—especially by stockpiling cars and increasing the number in global transit at the end of the quarter—could wreak havoc on Tesla’s balance sheet. Such an effort could increase costs for the second quarter while pushing revenue into the third quarter. That would translate into another ugly quarter when Tesla reports second-quarter earnings, while boosting Elon Musk’s goal of becoming profitable in the second half of 2018.

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