When Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson reviewed the electric sports car Tesla Roadster, he had plenty to say. Notably, he complained about the price, which was at the time of filming in the UK, £92,000 (about $150,962.40 US). Lucky for all of you prospective Tesla Roadster buyers, the price has dropped to a mere $109,000. And if you moved to Colorado, you could get your hands on it for a mere fraction of the price.
Colorado? Yeah, you read that right. Colorado is offering a 38% tax credit on the Roadster through the end of the year. That brings the total cost of the Roadster to about $65,000.
It’s not just the Tesla that can take advantage of the credit. It applies to your run of the mill Prius, too. In fact, Colorado is ahead of the pack when it comes to providing tax breaks for hybrid and zero-emission vehicles. The state has been doing it for years.
But it’s the size of the Tesla refund that is attracting attention.
Bowing to pressure from overextended taxpayers, state lawmakers passed a bill which would cap such refunds at $6,000. The bill, however, doesn’t take effect until next year. That means that there’s still plenty of time to take advantage of the refund this year.
Though state lawmakers didn’t expect to see more than 10 Tesla refunds, one Tesla dealership has reported selling six cars this week alone. That’s about $252,000 in refunds in one week. That’s not a pace that taxpayers are happy to see when faced with a $320 million deficit in the state budget.
Of course, there are some restrictions on the refund. For one, to qualify, the vehicle must be titled and registered in Colorado. And the credit is only available in the year that the car was purchased.
However, since it’s a tax credit (and not a flat out dollars back refund), there is a chance that the amount of the credit could exceed a taxpayer’s net tax liability for the year. If that happens, any excess credit may be carried forward and claimed on future year returns for up to five years.
So, it may not turn out be the kind of hit that taxpayers fear. That still doesn’t make taxpayers feel better about what’s perceived as an irresponsible tax policy. The amount of the refund alone, it has been noted, is more than many taxpayers will pay for the total cost of their car. In a tight economy, this isn’t the kind of thing that sits well with many folks.
What do you think? Fair game or bad policy?
And if you’re interested, you can watch the controversial “Top Gear” review of the Tesla Roadster here:
(In case you missed the scandal, the BBC later admitted that the scene of the car being pushed into the garage was not a result of the alleged 55 mile fail.)
Idiotic. Electric cars accomplish nothing, if you’re plugging them into an outlet with a coal-fired power plant on the other end. Legislative stupidity, it goes without saying, knows no bounds.
Urbie, that is just not the case (the part about there being no difference between coal-fired power -> electric cars vs. gasoline-fueld cars; I’ll give you the limitless legislative stupidity). Because of the greater efficiency of electric motors and electricity generation compared to gasoline-fueled internal combustion engines, the total greenhouse gas emissions are much lower for electric cars than for gasoline-fueled cars. Also, there are ways to generate electricity other than coal. Now, in CO they are 70% coal-fired, which does suggest that they could be allocating their tax credits more efficiently to achieve positive ecological outcomes.
Apart from a nuclear power station, a unit of fossil fuel burnt at a conventional power station will have losses. First there are the thermal losses in the steam turbines. This can actually be seen being wasted from the huge cooling towers at any power-station. This amounts to about 25% of the heat energy in the fuel. Then there are the mechanical losses of the turbines and alternators which exist during the process of generating the electricity. This amounts to about 15% of the fuel energy. Then there is the resistance losses caused by channelling the high-voltage electricity through miles and miles of cable before it gets to the domestic outlet. This amounts to about 15%. Then there are the charging losses which arise when using this electricity to ‘fill’ the car battery. This amounts to about 4%. Finally there are the heat and resistance losses caused when the electricity in the battery is converted into menchnical power via the electric motor driving the car. This amounts to about 4% as well. All these separate losses means that the consumer is only getting about 37% of the energy of the fuel used at the power station. Most gasoline cars get about 40% 0f the fuel energy in the gas-tank.