If you pay $7,500 or more in FEDERAL TAXES, whether you get a refund or not, AND your adjusted income for 2023 is below certain figures ($300K for married couples, etc), you'd get that back, in the form of an additional $7,500 refund, or a reduction of your estimated tax payment due Jan 15, 2024, which would be my case, if I end up buying one. If you paid from $0.01 to $7,499.99 in federal taxes, you'd only get that portion back (assuming you're under the maximum income limitations). And only few EVs qualify for a rebate, so you'd have to check if your specific model does (not all Teslas do).
What is not clear to me, is if you still need to qualify for income in 2024, when the rebate is reportedly instant (at the dealer), instead of a tax credit.