Kinda sounds like not. $35,000 is a lot of money for a car for a lot of folks. Especially when you can get a used Civic for under a tenth of that.
That's apples and oranges.
Like arguing that a $300,000 house is a lot of money when you can get a perfectly good used double-wide trailer for $20,000.
$35,000, even without the rebate is in the ballpark of other mid-level NEW sedans from Honda & Toyota.... especially when you factor in the fuel savings and lower TCO of maintenance over a 10 year period of time.
No, it's only apples to oranges for someone whose first priority is getting into an electric car. It's apples to apples for someone whose first priority is economical transportation. Note that I was saying merely that for a lot of people, $35,000 is a lot of money for a car. It's worth it if an EV is what you want and can afford it. But a lot of people in the U.S. and the world would have to make serious sacrifices to buy a $35,000 car. It's called opportunity cost. If you don't have the savings or the disposable income (and a lot of folks don't) then spending that on a car means you go without something else.
I was speaking only about those folks whose finances would be severely pinched by the cost of a Model 3, when they could get transportation for a tenth that. Yes, it's inferior transportation, but it's still transportation, and for many people with limited income, a car is just transportation.
... Some people would (and will) buy an EV without the incentive. The tax credit isn't really designed for them, but they can collect it. [...] Other's can't or won't buy an EV without the credit. The incentive is obviously for them. They need to be incentivized to buy. ...
And that's precisely why it makes more sense to offer the incentive
after the initial demand is met, rather than at the start when there are a lot of people who will buy the car without it. Let all the impatient people, who will buy without the incentive, buy their cars
before offering it. That way more cars are sold:
Let's say there are 250,000 people who will buy without an incentive and 250,000 who will buy only if they get an incentive, evenly mixed in the queue, and let's say further that there's enough money to give 200,000 people an incentive. Under the present system 100,000 of the people who need the incentive will buy, and all 250,000 who don't need it will buy. A total of 350,000 cars are sold. But if you wait to offer the incentive, until everyone who is willing to buy without the incentive gets one and then offer the incentive, 450,000 cars are sold.
The present system wastes government money by giving the incentive to people who would buy the car anyway. If you wait to offer the incentive until initial demand flags, the incentive goes further and more cars get on the road.
If Tesla cannot deliver the vehicle before the tax credit goes away [I'm assuming 12/31/17] we will not take delivery of a new vehicle.
I will get the deposit back because they sold the vehicle price net of the tax credit. They don't have enough fine print to get out of that one.
What fine print? Tesla will give you back your deposit at any time for any reason or no reason. You don't have to give a reason or make an excuse. You just say "I changed my mind."
