tinm
2020 Model S LR+ Owner
Meanwhile, in New Mexico...
Today the Senate Corporations Committee held a hearing and Senate Bill 2 (SB2), the EV Tax Credit, passed, 6-2. Next step: Senate Finance Committee, which will be a much tougher battle.
Here are the main provisions of the bill, as amended, that passed today:
The irony, of course, the hulking elephant in the room, remains the fact that a little American company called Tesla sells what, 80% of all EVs in the USA, and Tesla is effectively banned from direct on-site test drives, sales, and service in the state of New Mexico, effectively discouraging citizens from buying Teslas for years here. A point I brought up to the committee. In fact, I got data today from the motor vehicles dept that says only ~2300 BEVs are registered in the state of NM. 950 of them are Teslas (and almost half of them are members of the Tesla Owners Club of New Mexico -- not bad
. That is it for EV ownership in NM. Yikes: consider there are a total of 2.3 million vehicles registered in the state. I told the committee that any fee or gotcha or limitation at this point will harm the adoption of EVs and NM urgently needs to step up its game and encourage EV buyers to buy. I told them they should skip the $100 annual fee altogether until, say, EVs are 5% of that 2.3 million. Did they listen to me? Uh, no.
We still have a long way to go. That said, it's a positive step forward.
EDIT: Oh -- get this -- one of the 2 "no" votes, a Republican state senator, smugly stated at one point that he was perfectly happy with EVs in the state of New Mexico as long as they were being charged from a coal-burning power plant. I. kid. you. not.
Today the Senate Corporations Committee held a hearing and Senate Bill 2 (SB2), the EV Tax Credit, passed, 6-2. Next step: Senate Finance Committee, which will be a much tougher battle.
Here are the main provisions of the bill, as amended, that passed today:
- Depending on marital/filing status and your income level, the tax credit is $2500 to $5000 (the latter for lower-income folks)
- It's being called a "refund tax credit" which is good news: if say you are eligible for 2500 or 5000 credit, but do not have that much of a tax liability owed to the state, then you get the difference as cash. E.g., if you had no income or super-low income, you could get a check from the state for $5000 after buying an EV.
- Originally the bill had an EV MSRP cap of $48K but that was changed, and the new language that passed the committee states that if the MODEL of vehicle you buy has a BASE PRICE MSRP of 48K or under, then even if you buy a ton of options on the car, it's still eligible for the tax credit. You can bet Tesla's lobbyist was probably involved in that little enhancement to the text of the bill. It means that If you buy, say, a $69000 maxed-out/FSD/Performance Model Y, it's eligible for the credit, because the MSRP on the base model Y is like 44K.
- If you buy an EV charger for your garage, you're eligible for up to a $300 tax credit on the first $300 of the purchase/installation.
- If you buy an EV in the state of NM, there will be a new $100 *annual* EV registration fee on top of the normal Dept Motor Vehicles registration fee. Most people who testified today, including me, urged the committee to lower or eliminate that fee as a provision of an otherwise great bill, but in this oil and gas state, it seems like this notion that "EV people need to pay their fair share" is just firmly stuck in the senators' minds and they won't budge.
The irony, of course, the hulking elephant in the room, remains the fact that a little American company called Tesla sells what, 80% of all EVs in the USA, and Tesla is effectively banned from direct on-site test drives, sales, and service in the state of New Mexico, effectively discouraging citizens from buying Teslas for years here. A point I brought up to the committee. In fact, I got data today from the motor vehicles dept that says only ~2300 BEVs are registered in the state of NM. 950 of them are Teslas (and almost half of them are members of the Tesla Owners Club of New Mexico -- not bad
. That is it for EV ownership in NM. Yikes: consider there are a total of 2.3 million vehicles registered in the state. I told the committee that any fee or gotcha or limitation at this point will harm the adoption of EVs and NM urgently needs to step up its game and encourage EV buyers to buy. I told them they should skip the $100 annual fee altogether until, say, EVs are 5% of that 2.3 million. Did they listen to me? Uh, no. We still have a long way to go. That said, it's a positive step forward.
EDIT: Oh -- get this -- one of the 2 "no" votes, a Republican state senator, smugly stated at one point that he was perfectly happy with EVs in the state of New Mexico as long as they were being charged from a coal-burning power plant. I. kid. you. not.
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