EV buyers rejoice. Starting January 1, you’ll be able to go to your local dealer and claim the EV tax credit as an actual discount on your vehicle. Surprisingly it looks as if dealers are on board with this plan too—at least some of them.
Automotive News reports that data from the National Automobile Dealers Association shows that of the 17,000 or so dealers selling light vehicles in the U.S., over 7,000 have registered with the IRS to offer the tax credit as a discount. However, NADA spokesperson Juliet Guerra clarified that those 7,000 don’t reflect those dealers that have actually been registered and cleared by the IRS.
“In fact, there are many more dealerships that are covered by those 7,000 registrations, and this does not include the many registration applications that have been submitted but that the IRS has not yet approved,” Guerra said. She also mentioned that there are dealers in those numbers that don’t actually have any EVs that are tax credit eligible to sell. Some dealers just seem to be covering their bases.
While dealers can register with the newly launched IRS website called IRS Energy Credits Online, they still have to actually be cleared by the agency to offer the credit at point-of-sale. Once they do that, they can then electronically submit their EV sales information so they can get reimbursed by the IRS “within 72 hours.”
While the Treasury Department says that it has done a number of things to make dealers aware of the requirement of having to register, and this is all great news for buyers, the reality is that the number of EVs actually eligible for the credit continue to get smaller. Changing guidelines by the Feds means just 10 EVs from five manufacturers will be eligible for the credit starting January 1.