Costly Subsidies for the Rich Quantifying the Subsidies Offered to Battery Electric Powered Cars

I normally don't post or get into discussions of a political nature

While I trying to find the electric charger tax credit, I came across this article from Pacific Research Institute. Had never heard of them before and find they are free market think thank and they do not like this idea of giving tax credits for EVs one bit.

Again, I will not say I disagree with some of what they say, but I think are being simplistic and are looking at everything in pure simplistic quantifiable economic terms. They do not have anything to measure impact on environment or the benefits of cleaner air for example. And they do seem to have some people listening to them

I agree with them the subsides need to go at a certain point in time (and we have not reached that yet) and manufacturers need to learn to live without it as Tesla is doing, but such articles do a disservice to the larger good.


Here is the article and the synopsis



https://www.pacificresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/CarSubsidies_final_web.pdf


https://www.pacificresearch.org/wayne-winegardens-costly-subsidies-for-the-rich-featured-in-international-policy-digest-article-on-electric-car-subsidies/



Driving a Tesla is the new status symbol. It is meant to convey a certain message, and it does: “I am a wealthy person who cares about the environment.”

Now passé are the tragic-cool gas-guzzling Hummers and Land Rovers of the past. A giant SUV, no matter the price tag, is no longer the badge of cultural honor it once was. In many circles, the once ubiquitous auto has become the opposite of a status symbol. It is, after all, a statistical fact that people who listen to NPR do not own Hummers and people who own Hummers do not listen to NPR.

And in full circle, the large tax write-offs small business owners once used to buy jumbo sport-utility vehicles are now being applied to electric Teslas. Albeit, for totally different reasons. But both ultimately for no good point.

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

Because everything has consequences.

Call it the Law of Unintended Consequences. In February 2018, a Pacific Institute Research study found that 79% of electric vehicle tax credits were claimed by households making over $100,000 per year. Households making more than $50,000 per year claimed 99% percent of the credits.

“When politicians talk about the need to subsidize costly electric cars, they fail to tell you that the hundreds of millions of dollars of subsidies that taxpayers are paying for are just another giveaway to the wealthy. After reading our new study, taxpayers should start asking elected officials what benefit we are getting from these expensive subsidies that only benefit upper-income households.” – Dr. Wayne Winegarden, Pacific Institute Research