View attachment 167827 The picture above is of my Model X.
________________________________________________________________________________________
I think there are still many individuals who read this forum who think the purpose of the Federal EV Tax Credit was to allow the lower income population to afford to buy an electric vehicle. This EV Tax Credit was not meant to be a form of welfare. There are specific state level incentives and programs which serve the purpose to help lower income individuals afford electric cars but not this federal program.
The purpose of the Federal EV Tax Credit is incentivize people to purchase an EV car rather than a traditional car with a gas combustion engine therefore helping the adoption of new technology and the widespread use of electric vehicles. So it is currently meetings this purpose whether it is a person in the higher, mid or lower income levels who are purchasing these cars.
By Tesla creating such superb vehicles people will purchase their cars regardless of the incentives and there will be waiting lines to make the purchase. Those who are in the process of purchasing a new car of similar cost might decide to purchase the Tesla instead but the credit will be one of many factors not the only factor.
There have been bills introduced in the past few years which would have raised the cap from 200,000 to 500,000 and which would have increased the credit from $7,500 to $10,000. Neither of which could gain any support in a deadlocked congress. It doesn't look like this will change anytime soon. From my knowledge there isn't even anything pending to raise these levels.
I personally find it offensive when people indicate those who already own a Tesla don't deserve the credit, the credit which should be going to lower income individuals. It would be different if the purpose of the credit was to help low income earners to buy an electric car but it isn't, matter of fact it is the opposite, the only people who can take full advantage of it are mid to high wage earners. To me this is the mindset of the most current generations who feel they are entitled and expect things to be handed to them.
Both my wife and I put ourselves through college as neither of our parents could afford to put us through school. We were the first in our families to get a higher education and we both worked and went school at the same time to be able to afford college. Early on it was the choice between eating and buying school books. Many nights it was just rice or just potatoes.
During our life we both worked and at times we had more than one job. We saved and invested our money (some of it in TSLA) and after 40 years we have retired and saved enough money to buy a Tesla. No one ever gave us a handout nor did we ask for one. I think we deserve the Tesla and the $7,500 rebate. In several years (earlier if it is meant to be) I plan on getting my wife a Model 3 and hopefully it will be in time to get another rebate as she recently donated her Prius to someone who had no form of transportation and was the single mother of three. In the meantime I am sharing my Tesla Model X with my wife.
I wish someone had info on how many Model X owners/reservation holders also own a Model S. That would I think give an excellent baseline for reservations of model 3s by existing owners. Like you said, the other aspect may be options. I wouldn't be surprised if the queue was comprised two (maybe three?) smaller queues. Say ~20k US employees/~40k current owners and ~100k new owners, with the employee/owner queue and new owner queue each basing build order off of some combination of reservation date and option level.
