Wow Tim, guess you woke up on the wrong side of the bed. Are you crazy, Telsa now employes more people than NUMMI did and is Fremont's biggest employer. So you want people NOT to buy Telsa's cars. The tax breaks are there to get people to buy electric cars. In fact all cars that are used for commuting should be electric. Drive an electric car for awhile and you will begin to notice how noxious gasoline powered cars are. I felt like you did initially, but after getting an electric car, I don't ever want to go back to a gasoline car for commuting. So do what I did, buy an electric car and see for yourself instead of writing about something you know nothing about. Another issue is the tax code. You are obviously ignorant on this issue also. Do you know how much low income people get in refundable credits? They can get in excess of $14,000 for health care benefits. They can get in excess of $7,000 in earned income credit. Well to do people that work for a living (earned income) get screwed. There is almost no credits that they can deduct. So if they can deduct the $10,000 for buying a Tesla, good for them. They deserve to have a deduction now and then. As for the roads, it is the trucks that screw them up. You can take the heaviest SUV and run it over the same pavement 50,000 times, and it still will not equal the wear that one semi does to the pavement in one pass. I do agree with you that the people running the Air Board have their heads screwed on backwards.

I agree with Bill. Tim is flat wrong. Consider the sales of Teslas to be an investment in breathable air and technology for the followers of the automotive world. Not to mention climate change. The new model 3 is targeted for $35k before the tax credit. What's not to like?

I attended the BAAQMD meeting in Livermore.
There was approximately 125 people in attendance plus the BAAQMD people.

About fifty people spoke. I was the twelfth speaker. All speakers spoke out against the BAAQMD rule change. One person, a lady from Hayward, representing the American Lung Association stated she has asthma, spoke in support of the BAAQMD.

To borrow a phrase from Tom Cushing, it was a "Raucous Caucus".

I am glad I attended, it was fun.

I attended the BAAQMD meeting in Livermore.
There was approximately 125 people in attendance plus the BAAQMD people.

About fifty people spoke. I was the twelfth speaker. All speakers spoke out against the BAAQMD rule change. One person, a lady from Hayward, representing the American Lung Association stated she has asthma, spoke in support of the BAAQMD.

To borrow a phrase from Tom Cushing, it was a "Raucous Caucus".

I am glad I attended, it was fun.

I attended the BAAQMD meeting in Livermore.
There was approximately 125 people in attendance plus the BAAQMD people.

About fifty people spoke. I was the twelfth speaker. All speakers spoke out against the BAAQMD rule change. One person, a lady from Hayward, representing the American Lung Association stated she has asthma, spoke in support of the BAAQMD.

To borrow a phrase from Tom Cushing, it was a "Raucous Caucus".

I am glad I attended, it was fun.

I attended the BAAQMD meeting in Livermore.
There was approximately 125 people in attendance plus the BAAQMD people.

About fifty people spoke. I was the twelfth speaker. All speakers spoke out against the BAAQMD rule change. One person, a lady from Hayward, representing the American Lung Association stated she has asthma, spoke in support of the BAAQMD.

To borrow a phrase from Tom Cushing, it was a "Raucous Caucus".

I am glad I attended, it was fun.

I am always skeptical of a system that takes public money and subsidizes an industry or a cause to do "good". It doesn't make logical sense and it is not sustainable without doing harm.

Tell me Tim, can you show me the difference between "Rich" people smog and "Poor" people smog? Can you tell me if a rich person supported terrorism or a poor person did? Is class warfare the real reason for the rebate program or was it to get buyers to commit to a new technology? Setting a limit on the prce of the car to get the rebate is doing nothing for the technology, if anything it hurts it! And if you are goingafgtercarsover $40,000, it means that you are intentionally going after the most revolutionary designs in the industry, Tesla, BMW and Cadillac. Weare doing this to save our air and water and get the rest of the industry to catch up. If you truly want to limit rebates and tax credits, then only allow buyers to use the credit or rebate once. A repeat customer means your rebate worked the first time - they already get it! Let's get a new person the next time, rich or poor, I don't care, but lets not kill off the only California car maker with some insane rule like you are suggesting, its counter productive and I don't think those that support it are showing their true colorsofwhythey support it.

@Jake - name one major industry that doesn't get federal or state subsidy. Aviation/Aerospace, Petroleum, Mining, Farming, Ranching, Automobile, Lumber, Banking, etc, etc. And how about the "Global" companies that are American but put their headquarters in a tax free country, robbing us of trillions of dollars. This is the worst find of subsidy where you are giving away technology to other countries and hiring foreign workers for jobs that rightfully belong to Americans.

Sorry folks I agree with Tim. The people who can afford the Tesla do not need a subsidy - period. They would buy it anyway because it is the cool thing to do in that income bracket (yes an income bracket that most taxpayer will never attain). Tax payers that cannot afford one should not be subsidizing a CAR, an expensive car at that, for someone who could afford it anyway.

I think that the issue here is that the car isn't mainstream enough for the people in the middle income range to start looking at these vehicles. They might not be that expensive, but financing wise, the quotes are still unstable. There are a lot of other factors as well - like charging stations and all that. Plus the people who are not so well to do really just want a vehicle that will get them from A to B, without any care of the emissions or fuel consumption. Web Link