One big thing about this is that the credit becomes essentially refundable (for those who qualify for the credit). Previously, just like the solar panel credit

One big thing about this is that the credit becomes essentially refundable (for those who qualify for the credit). Previously, just like the solar panel credit of 30%, the credit only helped you if you had sufficient tax liability to be offset. That is the normal non-refundable type of credit. Refundable means you get the money, whether you owed enough tax for it to offset or not. (Most tax refunds are really just giving the taxpayer's own overpaid funds back to them.) Refundable credits are almost always a form of welfare administered through the tax system, for example the Child Tax Credit, Earned Income Credit, Adoption credit, etc. So in this case, suppose the buyer has sufficently low taxable income that they have no tax liability (for example, someone whose income consistes primarily of Social Security and gifts from relatives). They still get the full EV credit, whereas before, they would have a carryforward credit that they could never use unless they started incurring tax liability.