You Can Now Get A US Tax Credit On These 14 EVs, Or You Can Just … – CleanTechnica

Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News!

---

With the rules on the $7,500 US EV tax credit getting updated at the turn of the year, the list of electric vehicles that now qualify for the US EV tax credit has changed as well.

It’s widely expected that Republicans in Congress and Donald Trump will kill the US EV tax credit, and there’s even concern they could do that retroactively to January 1, 2025. However, for the time being, the tax credit is alive — for certain EVs. However, there’s another element to the policy that also ties into big market issues and to some extent makes this list moot. But I’ll come back to that after going through the list.

1. Acura ZDX
2. Cadillac LYRIQ
3. Cadillac OPTIQ
4. Chevrolet Blazer EV (LT, RS, & SS trim)
5. Chevrolet Equinox EV (LT & RS trim)
6. Chevrolet Silverado EV (LT trim)
7. Ford F-150 Lightning (FLASH, LARIAT, & XLT trim)
8. Honda Prologue
9. Kia EV6
10. Kia EV9
11. Tesla Cybertruck (dual motor and single motor trims)
12. Tesla Model 3 (Long Range AWD, Long Range RWD, and Performance trim)
13. Tesla Model X (AWD)
14. Tesla Model Y (Long Range AWD, Long Range RWD, and Performance trim)

The Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid (PHEV) is also eligible for the full $7,500 tax credit.

Of course, other models can be added to this list. But the clock is ticking. For the full requirements, see the section on the bottom quoted at length from the US Department of Energy (DOE) and US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) fueleconomy.gov website.

Forget Buying — Just Lease

As has been discussed many times, you can get the tax credit applied to any leased EV — just make sure to push for it. Of course, in that case, you’re not claiming the tax credit, the dealer is. So, say you want a Hyundai IONIQ 5 or a Ford Mustang Mach-E, when you go in to lease it, be sure you emphasize that you want a cheaper price thanks to the EV tax credit.

In the middle of our long discussion yesterday, David Havasi made the point that leasing really makes the most sense right now. (Note that neither of us are leasing our Tesla Model 3s.) EV innovation is happening so fast, including battery development and bringing down battery costs, that electric cars often suffer from significant depreciation and there’s often significantly more tech and better specs in new electric cars after a few years. So, it may just be most logical to lease if you want to get into a new EV right now. I’ve seen that argument made elsewhere several times as well.

EV Tax Credit Requirements on Purchases

Below are the tax credit requirements as explained by Oak Ridge National Laboratory for the US DOE and the US EPA on the fueleconomy.gov website.

---

Who Qualifies

The credit is available to individuals and their businesses.

To qualify, you must:

• Buy it for your own use, not for resale
• Use it primarily in the U.S.

In addition, your modified adjusted gross income (AGI) may not exceed:

• $300,000 for married couples filing jointly
• $225,000 for heads of households
• $150,000 for all other filers

You can use your modified AGI from the year you take delivery of the vehicle or the year before, whichever is less. If your modified AGI is below the threshold in one of the two years, you can claim the credit. Your modified AGI is the amount from line 11 of your Form 1040 plus:

• Any amount on line 45 or line 50 of Form 2555, Foreign Earned Income.
• Any amount excluded from gross income because it was received from sources in Puerto Rico or American Samoa.

The credit is nonrefundable when you file your taxes, so you can’t get back more on the credit than you owe in taxes if you do not transfer the credit at purchase time (see Claiming the Credit for more on credit transfer at the point of sale). You can’t apply any excess credit to future tax years.

Qualified Vehicles

General Requirements

To qualify, a vehicle must:

• Have a battery capacity of at least 7 kilowatt hours
• Have a gross vehicle weight rating of less than 14,000 pounds
• Be made by a qualified manufacturer.
  Note that fuel cell vehicles do not need to be made by a qualified manufacturer to be eligible. See Rev. Proc. 2022-42 for more detailed guidance.

Vehicles on this list will meet the above three requirements.

The sale qualifies only if:

• You buy the vehicle new. New means it hasn’t previously been purchased, registered, titled, or used for any purpose.
• The seller reports required information to you at the time of sale and to the IRS. Sellers are required to report your name and taxpayer identification number to the IRS for you to be eligible to claim the credit.

For vehicles placed in service on or after January 1, 2024, the dealer must be registered with IRS Energy Credits Online, and the vehicle must be approved through Energy Credits Online at the time of sale.

Final Assembly Requirement

The vehicle must undergo final assembly in North America.

You can find your vehicle’s weight, battery capacity, final assembly location (listed as “final assembly point”) and VIN on the vehicle’s window sticker.

To check online if a specific vehicle meets the requirements for final assembly location, go to the Department of Energy’s page on Electric Vehicles with Final Assembly in North America and use the VIN Decoder tool under “Specific Assembly Location Based on VIN.”

Critical Minerals and Battery Component Requirements

For vehicles placed in service (delivered to the consumer) on or after April 18, 2023, the credit amount will depend on the vehicle meeting the critical minerals sourcing and/or battery components sourcing requirements. A vehicle meeting both sourcing requirements may be eligible for the full $7,500 credit, and a vehicle meeting only one of these sourcing requirements may be eligible for a credit of $3,750. A vehicle meeting neither requirement will not be eligible for a credit.

In some instances, you may need to check with your dealer regarding the eligibility of and credit amount for a specific vehicle.

MSRP Requirement

The vehicle’s manufacturer suggested retail price (MSRP) can’t exceed:

• $80,000 for vans, sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks
• $55,000 for other vehicles

The MSRP is the base retail price suggested by the manufacturer, plus the retail price suggested by the manufacturer for each accessory or item of optional equipment physically attached to the vehicle at the time of delivery to the dealer. It does not include destination charges, the cost of optional items added by the dealer, or taxes and fees. In addition, manufacturer/dealer incentives and trade-ins do not affect MSRP.

See New Clean Vehicle Tax Credit Checklist: How to qualify for the New Clean Vehicle Tax Credit.