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I personally feel like pricing in tax refunds into the displayed cost of the car is fair game, but pricing in gas savings is bullshit. Tax refunds is money I'm

I personally feel like pricing in tax refunds into the displayed cost of the car is fair game, but pricing in gas savings is bullshit. Tax refunds is money I'm definitely going to get back in a bounded (and reasonably short) amount of time. If I pay $40k for a car and get $7k back in the same year, it seems reasonable to advertise the cost as $33k (assuming it's clear that $7k of that is a tax refund). But gas savings feels like bullshit -- it's money I may or may not get back (depending on my habits), the time horizon is unbounded, and even if it were bounded, it's long (an order of multiple years). That feels deceptive to me, and it's surprising they got away with it until now.

ithkuil 8y ago
I'm not sure you can rely on tax refunds either. For example, if you buy the car in your name and then you lose your source of income (whatever reason, e.g. health, maternity/childcare) and for example you rely only on your spouse's income, I know at least one country where you can't pass the tax benefits to the other person (not even by transferring ownership of the car)
vinay427 8y ago
In the US, the federal tax credit is a "credit" rather than a refund. That means that if you don't pay enough federal taxes in that year, you won't be saving the listed amount. Many state rebates don't work like this, but in some sense it is still misleading for Tesla and other electric vehicle manufacturers to not make this clear.
- skinnymuch 8y ago
  Do those credits not carry over to the next year?
  - zaroth 8y ago
    They do not carry over for personal use. A business can carry them over.
    - Fjolsvith 8y ago
      Hello Uber and Lyft!
- coredog64 8y ago
  How many people can afford a Tesla while not having $7k of federal tax liability?
  - Scoundreller 8y ago
    The same way “students” and “homemakers” sometimes buy multimillion dollar properties: offshore money (laundering).

ithkuil 8y ago

I'm not sure you can rely on tax refunds either. For example, if you buy the car in your name and then you lose your source of income (whatever reason, e.g. health, maternity/childcare) and for example you rely only on your spouse's income, I know at least one country where you can't pass the tax benefits to the other person (not even by transferring ownership of the car)

vinay427 8y ago

In the US, the federal tax credit is a "credit" rather than a refund. That means that if you don't pay enough federal taxes in that year, you won't be saving the listed amount. Many state rebates don't work like this, but in some sense it is still misleading for Tesla and other electric vehicle manufacturers to not make this clear.

skinnymuch 8y ago
Do those credits not carry over to the next year?
- zaroth 8y ago
  They do not carry over for personal use. A business can carry them over.
  - Fjolsvith 8y ago
    Hello Uber and Lyft!
coredog64 8y ago
How many people can afford a Tesla while not having $7k of federal tax liability?
- Scoundreller 8y ago
  The same way “students” and “homemakers” sometimes buy multimillion dollar properties: offshore money (laundering).