It's not the federal tax credit for purchasers, but rather the state ZEV credit which manufacturers trade. "California, and nine other U.S. states that have ad

It's not the federal tax credit for purchasers, but rather the state ZEV credit which manufacturers trade. "California, and nine other U.S. states that have adopted its ZEV regime, require automakers that sell internal combustion engine-based vehicles to earn a certain number of ZEV credits every year by selling zero-emission vehicles. The credit requirement is typically determined by the number of vehicles that the manufacturer sells in the state. If an automaker doesn’t produce enough electric cars to meet its quota, it can choose to buy credits from other manufacturers who do or pay a $5,000 fine for each credit it is short." https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2017/09/01/teslas-lucrative-zev-credits-may-not-be-sustainable/#3af41c0c6ed5 https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2017/09/01/te...