George W. Bush is the one who initially signed the $7,500 federal EV tax credit into law after giving his “America is addicted to oil” speech. But I'm sure you already knew that, right? The tax credit automatically phases out once each manufacturer sells 200,000 EVs. Expect that to happen in five or six years.
“This is a car which survives solely based upon subsidies to its manufacturer and also subsides to those who purchase the car.”
Battery prices have been falling rapidly. Initially costing around $1000/kWh, they are now at $300/kWh and continuing to fall. Once the tax credits phase out, expect prices to drop again to compensate. This article discusses the 14% per year average drop in battery prices over the last seven years:
Sticker Shock: An Electric Car Could Soon Be as Cheap as Your Gas Guzzler
“DOUBLE SUBISIDIES. What other manufacturer gets that?”
Most of them. People don't realize it but even Ford still owes the government money. And Tesla got a $465 million loan... and paid it back. Even the number one automaker in the world, Toyota, got bailed out a few times by Japan.
Look, I don't like how the bailout with GM went down either. The unions, in my opinion, were the ones that caused the downfall of the company and yet they got bailed out.
But to take a naive view of the auto industry as if all of them have not gotten government help at one time or another is silly.
Related...
The state of Georgia has just removed any subsidies and tax rebates on the purchase of electric vehicles and initiated a $300/year highway usage fee on them.
It doesn’t matter who promotes bad policy.
Bad policy is bad policy.