A source speaking to Reuters on Wednesday said that General Motors sold its 200,000th electric vehicle (EV) in Q4 2018, triggering a 15-month phaseout of the Federal Tax Credit that has benefitted GM's EV buyers for years.
GM is expected to announce this information during its Q4 2018 financial call on Thursday. The company indicated previously that it expected to hit the 200,000 mark before the closeout of 2018.
This means that GM's EVs will no longer receive a Federal Tax Credit of $7,500 after April 1. The credit will be cut in half to $3,750 for the next six months, then it will be cut in half again for another six months until it is phased out completely.
GM's main competitor in the EV space, Tesla, saw its $7,500 tax credit expire on January 1 this year. Tesla pushed to deliver as many vehicles as it could before its customers saw an effective price hike of $3,750 on all cars. Today, Tesla said it would cut prices on its vehicles by $2,000 to compensate for the loss of some of the tax credit.
By November 2018, GM had sold more than 18,600 Volts and nearly 17,000 Bolts for the year according to InsideEVs. Also in November, GM said it would cut costs by eliminating the Volt line, even though the Volt was, apparently, the better-selling line of low-emissions vehicles in Chevy's lineup.
Now, Bolt buyers will see an effective price hike of $3,750, just like Tesla buyers. But GM may be able to reach customers that Tesla can't yet: the 2019 Chevy Bolt starts at just under $37,000, about $7,000 less than the current starting price for the Model 3.
In October 2017, GM said it would introduce 20 new battery electric vehicles, two within the next 18 months. However, that deadline is fast approaching and news of a new EV from GM has been scarce.
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Ars Technica
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