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“And the thing about this tax credit is that many lower wage earners and retirees don’t pay $7,500 in federal taxes so they can’t take advantage of it even should they buy a cheaper model. It should never have been implemented in the first place.”

I would argue that lower wage earners and retirees on a fixed income are most often looking for inexpensive used cars. After the tax credit, the Volt is $27,500 and the Leaf is $22,500 which I think falls more in line with the budget of middle to upper-middle class wage earners. Lower income earners will benefit indirectly as the cost of used electric cars are brought down as a result of the original subsidized price.

I did a quick and dirty calculation using this calculator and it seems that a single person claiming one personal exemption and the standard deduction would need to make $57,000 in order to get the full $7,500 tax credit. This falls into the middle to upper-middle class range in my mind. Certainly not rich.

Disclosure: This is all based on my perception of people's buying habits relative to their income. All the cars I've owned were bought used so maybe my own frugality is affecting my analysis.

Disclosure: This is all based on my perception of people's buying habits relative to their income. All the cars I've owned were bought used so maybe my own frugality is affecting my analysis.

WTF are you to be opining on your fellow citizens' buying habits?

Somebody making only $50K per year (or a family of 4 making $80K/year) has zero business buying a new car.

That is how to keep people poor. The government should not subsidize bad behaviour.

Nobody in their right mind will purchase a used electric car unless its pennies on the dollar of a new one. The repair costs are just too high at this point in time.