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About this blog: I am a native of Alameda County, grew up in Pleasanton and currently live in the house I grew up in that is more than 100 years old. I spent 39 years in the daily newspaper business and wrote a column for more than 25 years in add...  (More)

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Time to revise rebates for electric cars

Uploaded: Apr 9, 2015

State Senator Ted Gaines (R-Rocklin) has a great idea.
He proposes limiting the state rebates on electric vehicles to cars priced at $40,000 or less.
Currently, most of the state rebate cash is going to people who earn twice the national average. Most of these vehicles are manufactured by Telsa Motors in the old General Motors/Toyota plant in Fremont. The base price on the Telsa S had started at $71,000 and is going up as the company stops producing the lowest priced S sedan.
Surveys show that 77 percent of electric car purchasers in California earn more than $100,000 per year. It's well past time to eliminate that giveaway of tax money.
It's particularly egregious because the electric cars pay no gasoline taxes and the roads statewide are crumpling because of a lack of maintenance. The hefty cash payments amount to $2,500 from the state plus a $7,500 tax credit from the feds. That's $10k in the pocket of a person who can afford at $100k car.
It's time for change.

If you want to weigh in on the Bay Area air board's plans to wipe out wood-burning fireplaces and stoves, you can comment in Livermore on tonight from 6-8 p.m. at the City Council Chambers. It's one of nine meetings the board's staffers are holding around the Bay Area.
Local Journalism.
What is it worth to you?

Comments

Posted by Bill, a resident of Amberwood/Wood Meadows,
on Apr 9, 2015 at 12:22 pm

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.


Posted by mooseturd, a resident of Pleasanton Valley,
on Apr 9, 2015 at 4:31 pm

mooseturd is a registered user.

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?


Posted by Michael Austin, a resident of Pleasanton Meadows,
on Apr 9, 2015 at 9:25 pm

Michael Austin is a registered user.

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.


Posted by Michael Austin, a resident of Pleasanton Meadows,
on Apr 9, 2015 at 9:25 pm

Michael Austin is a registered user.

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.


Posted by Michael Austin, a resident of Pleasanton Meadows,
on Apr 9, 2015 at 9:25 pm

Michael Austin is a registered user.

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.


Posted by Michael Austin, a resident of Pleasanton Meadows,
on Apr 9, 2015 at 9:25 pm

Michael Austin is a registered user.

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.


Posted by Jake, a resident of Alamo,
on Apr 10, 2015 at 3:12 pm

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.


Posted by Jack Brown, a resident of another community,
on Apr 10, 2015 at 9:46 pm

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.


Posted by Bill, a resident of Amberwood/Wood Meadows,
on Apr 11, 2015 at 9:16 am

@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.


Posted by CJ, a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood,
on Apr 15, 2015 at 10:13 am

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.


Posted by webbrowan, a resident of another community,
on Mar 15, 2016 at 10:22 pm

webbrowan is a registered user.

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


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