Federal incentive was $7,500. This was Uncle Sam giving me an incentive to buy a "green" vehicle, not to subsidize Tesla's production.
If you're going to say - the value I am loosing is re-couped from the tax credit - I must stop you there. The tax credit is a whole separate thing from the car purchase. It is not a price break on the car.
The price of the car didn't change, just because of the tax credit.
The tax credit was between me & Uncle Sam -- not me & Tesla.
The $7500 tax credit has always been a gift to the manufacture to help their profit margins to incentive them to attempt to make EV's.
There are a couple ways we know this
A - If it was between the tax payer and the government then the limitation would be the total number of EV's where the tax credit was claimed. But, it's not that way. Instead it's the total number of tax credits claimed per manufacture. Tesla has hit that limitation so they no longer benefit from their vehicles qualifying for it.
B - If it was between the tax payer, and the government then it wouldn't be limited to just new vehicles. They would incentive the tax buyers buying an EV.
In the long run the only way Tesla can compete with companies who's vehicles still qualify for the tax credit is to lower the price. In essence there really was no reason to rush to purchase a Tesla before the tax credits expired.
I was someone who did this, and I don't believe I mathematically gained from it. Instead Tesla just countered the loss of the tax credit by lowering the price. OOPS!!
I didn't think Tesla had enough of a profit margin to do such massive price decreases. We'll know if they did then the quarter report on profits and loses is released. I did expect drops to compensate, but not to degree that they did especially when there still is little competition. It's not like people are jumping ship in droves for a Jaguar I-Pace or an E-Tron.
I don't feel too bad as most analyst seem to have gotten it wrong too. They assumed Tesla would have a really hard time competing with European competitors due to the federal tax credit issue, but apparently Tesla is so far ahead in terms of battery cost that they could pull off even competing at cost without a $7500 handout.