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The Model 3 is going to blow through those subsidies within a year of shipping. They're only available for a limited number of cars, then they go away. Tesla clearly thinks that they're viable without the tax credit.

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Yes, this is important. Tesla could blow through all of the credits in 2018. Tesla could technically benefit from the EV tax credit being cancelled after that, since its products would no longer qualify, but the other OEMs that have sat on the sidelines waiting for cheaper batteries would not be able to jump in and take advantage of having a subsidy available to them, but not to Tesla, Nissan, and GM that would have used up their credits.

The design of the EV tax credit is really bad.

The benefit to competitors would be limited, since as soon as they created a product that sold in high volumes, they'd use up their subsidy too.

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