I can’t stand Elon and am glad there are finally viable alternatives to Tesla (at least in the higher price ranges) but, to be fair, Lucid and all other EV customers also benefit from federal and state rebates and incentives the same way Tesla customers do (for some state incentives) and once did (federal rebates). These rebates don’t go to the manufacturers so I would say the article linked is very misleading… then again the Institute for Energy Research is essentially a front for big oil (check where their funding comes from) so to be expected.
The zero emission vehicle credits Tesla has been receiving does not come from tax payers but rather from other auto manufacturers who, rather than getting their act together and developing ZEVs to comply with ZEV requirements enacted by various states and countries, decided it was easier to pay Tesla credits instead. Now 10 years after the Model S came out these OEMs are finally scrambling to develop and manufacture EVs and to wind down their ICE programs. This illustrates how idiotic the OEMs are and suggests sitting on their hands for almost a decade was the wrong move strategically, but has nothing to do with tax breaks.
I am sure Tesla has received state and local subsidies and tax breaks (ie they just opened their Austin factory yesterday - I imagine Austin and Texas would have offered plenty of carrots for them to chose that location). Same is true for Lucid in Arizona though.
I don’t see why any of this would be a justification for the federal government to legislate that Tesla switch their system over to CCS charging format, anymore than it would be a justification for the govt to require any EV maker to build their own CCS stations just because their customers received tax rebates on their car purchase in the past. If Tesla wants to use the federal funding for new charging station buildouts, of course anything they build with that money should have CCS compatibility. If Tesla build out new charging stations without the federal funding it’s up to them what connector format they use, not the govt. If the govt wants Tesla to convert existing charging stations to CCS and Tesla is agreeable to that, then I suppose it’s fair Tesla ask for the cost to be covered. I don’t think that makes any sense given other posters’ experience of overloaded supercharger stations with long waits. Better to put all the funding towards building out as many QIALITY CCS chargers IN THE RIGHT LOCATIONS as fast as possible. I would also note that all EV mfrs have the option to take the initiative and build out their own charge stations with the federal funding available to improve their customers’ experience - hopefully some of them do rather than just sit around and wait and hope for EA and EVgo etc to just figure it out.
I really do hope it happens.
www.instituteforenergyresearch.org
