In Early December 2019 the state of California slashed their electric car rebate program. If you were waiting to get your Tesla, your rebate might have evaporated. But it is still available for some purchases, just not at the high numbers it used to offer.
Electric Car Rebates in California
There has been one major shift out of rebate qualification and that is the luxury electric car. Up until December 2019 it didn’t matter what type of electric car you purchased. It would qualify for thousands in rebates. That ended in December. Now the only qualified electric cars are valued at under $60,000. This leaves out the ever-popular Tesla S model.
The new electric vehicle rebates have been lowered, as well. Instead of the $2,500 rebate, it is now $2,000. Assemblyman Phil Ting has been trying hard to get the incentives tripled, not lowered, but it didn’t work. The bill he authored to triple incentives failed in committee earlier.
The wildly successful rebate program in California was so popular that it would drain the budget for rebates early in the year and leave the rest of the applicants on waiting lists. It’s the opinion of some legislators that the program should be enhanced in order to keep air quality improving, instead of depleting the program of funds.
But all is not lost with this program. The income saved in bumping off high-end electric vehicles from the program will be funneled into lower income program incentives. They will be focusing more money into incentives to get lower income residents into electric vehicle cars.
For lower income residents, they’ll qualify for up to $4,500 for all electric cars and up to $3,500 for hybrids. Low Income is defined as a household of 2 people with an income of $50,730.
See what you can qualify for with California’s rebate program.
