James Glover / Reuters
- The deadline to guarantee Tesla delivery by the time an electric vehicle tax credit gets cut in half was in October.
- But there may be waitlist spots to get a guarantee before the January deadline, CEO Elon Musk tweeted on Tuesday.
- After January 1, the government tax credit will shrink from $7,500 to $3,750.
A lucrative tax credit available to Tesla buyers will drop by $3,750 on January 1, but there may be some hope for potential customers who missed the October 15 deadline.
CEO Elon Musk tweeted Tuesday that potential buyers can join a cancellation waitlist to possibly take delivery of their vehicle ahead of the credit's reduction on January 1. If the car isn't delivered by then, they can request a full refund.
Tweet Embed://twitter.com/mims/statuses/1072493437264515073?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Important note for US Tesla buyers: Federal tax credit drops by $3750 in 3 weeks.
To be on the cancellation waitlist for delivery this year or if you want a display car, order at https://t.co/46TXqRJ3C1 or visit our stores. Full refund if Tesla can’t deliver your car this year.
The US government gives people who buy electric vehicles a tax credit of $2,500 to $7,500, depending on the vehicle's size and battery capacity. As Tesla wrote in an annual report filed with the US Securities and Exchange Committee in February, its customers get the full $7,500.
But two calendar quarters after a company sells its 200,000th electric vehicle in the US, the tax credit begins to phase out. Tesla confirmed to Business Insider in July that it had passed the 200,000-vehicle threshold. It is the first company to have its credits phased out.
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Tesla customers who take delivery between January 1 and June 30, 2019, will receive a $3,750 tax credit and those who take delivery between July 1 and December 31, 2019, will receive $1,875. Customers who take delivery beginning in 2020 will not receive a federal tax credit.
That means those who are waiting for the $35,000 base-priced version of Tesla's Model 3 sedan will not be eligible for the full tax credit, since Tesla says on its website that configurations of the Model 3 with a standard battery will become available beginning in three to six months. The least expensive Model 3 currently available starts at $49,000.
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See Also:
- Elon Musk reveals what Tesla would have been called if the company hadn't bought the rights to the 'Tesla' name
- Elon Musk broke one of Tesla's biggest Autopilot rules in a TV interview
- Elon Musk on missing Model 3 production deadlines: 'I've never made a mass-produced car. How am I supposed to know with precision when it’s going to get done?'
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