Hacker News Reader

Comment by nhebb | Hacker News Reader

> The base price is just under $50,000 after factoring in a $7,500 tax credit. But models with a large enough battery to allow for a 300 mile range will be priced at $87,900 after the tax credit.

Great. So American taxpayers are essentially subsidizing luxury automobiles.

View on HN

The subsidies are for plug-in electric vehicles in general. They apply to other cars like the Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet Volt as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_incentives_for_plug-...

It's more like we're subsidizing the electrification of luxury automobiles. Thinking about it in marginal terms makes it clearer. If the tax credit weren't in place, would model S buyers be getting a VW Golf instead? Probably not; they'd be getting some gas-guzzling jaguar or something.

The tax credit isn't paying for people to get nice cars, it's paying for people to get electric cars.

American taxpayers are essentially subsidizing luxury homes, as well. At least this has the benefit of helping to advance alternative transportation technologies.

Yes. But so what?

What we're actually subsidizing is R&D on electric vehicles. The problems that Tesla is struggling with (battery longevity, battery cost, charging cycle times) are fundamental problems of all electric vehicles. If a government subsidy for their luxury vehicles helps them improve the state of the art even incrementally then it will be a huge win for the public.

We should subsidize things that are already affordable instead? Um...

Or rather we should subsidize things that need to be affordable. Luxury cars are explicitly not meant to be affordable, so his point stands. What both of you have missed is the actual reason for subsidy, which is the fuel efficiency.

I can't speak for others, but I didn't miss the fuel efficiency aspect. If electric automobiles are ever going to make a significant environmental impact, they will need to priced for the masses.

You do know that that's exactly Tesla Motors' stated goal, right?

http://elonmusktesla.wordpress.com/2012/07/16/truly-affordab...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com