The Trump administration announced Monday it wants to end electric vehicle incentives by 2021. That would affect four current vehicles in the Ford lineup, and surely more down the road.
Reuters reports The White House wants to end the subsidies, which range from $2,500 to $7,500 tax credits, as well as other items including renewable energy sources. The move, though, still needs Congressional approval because The White House can’t unilaterally stop Congressional mandates. The same goes for the new USMCA trade agreement.
Eliminating the subsidies could be a blow to Ford because it makes things that much harder to sell expensive, complex electric vehicles to the public. And unlike Tesla and GM, the Blue Oval isn’t in any immediate range of delivering 200,000 electric vehicle sales to American consumers, which is when the incentives start to be reduced. However, it’s important to keep things in the future tense here.
The current batch of Ford electrified vehicles are being discontinued. Ford has a future performance-oriented battery-electric crossover – a model initially announced under the pseudonym “Mach 1” but likely to be called “Mach E” – purportedly coming as a 2020 model. Its styling is supposedly based on the Mustang. The electric vehicle is expected to have a range of 300 miles. A Ford Escape Plug-in Hybrid has also been spotted. It would be part of the compact crossover’s next redesign. A 2020 Lincoln Aviator Plug-in Hybrid has also been been made official. Several more electric vehicles from Ford are expected to be announced beyond what’s already been teased or confirmed.
In July, China said it would consider ending subsidies for electric vehicles as well. China has done more to support “alternative propulsion” vehicle powertrains than just about any other country on Earth, providing sizable tax incentives for battery-electric and hybrid vehicles, and even giving registration priority to EVs in several big cities.
If the future is indeed electric, it seems like it’s going to have to be sold to us without any government rebates on the hood.
Comments
If the Tax rebate ends, then only the wealthy that pay $7,500 or more in Federal taxes will be affected. Most U.S. citizens never reach that amount and many, such as myself, never pay any Federal taxes, so the best replacement is a point-of-sale rebate that any buyer can use.
Never pay taxes? How do you get away with that?
FYI $7500.00 in taxes = $63,000 in net income so your statement is bogus! $63,000 X 12% = $7,560 in total tax or about 40K under the poverty level in SF for a family of 4!
Please don’t throw me under this bus as it works for solar panels as well!
GOOD!!!!!!!! Someone with sense finally steps in and puts the brakes on this electrification and automation nonsense. I still say electrification and automation should be use for the commercial end of the auto industry only. Automation should be used in truck yards or bus yards for docking, loading and unloading vehicles, more fleet vehicles should use electric vehicles, Public transportation vehicles should use electrification, that’s where the focus of electrification should go.
I just finished commenting something on the GM Authority site and I feel that my same viewpoint fits the Ford side of things as well. The whole line of “people don’t buy sedan’s anymore” (or cars in general) is BS. People don’t buy what they don’t like and honestly, American’s aren’t fond of the sedans that are on the road anymore. We miss vehicles like the Crown Vic, the Thunderbird, and RWD performance V8 SUVs (something Ford never really got into) Ford has typically had cars that were comfortable (even the mustang for what it was worth was more comfortable than an F-body although the F-body was usually faster) even if they lacked outright power and reliability to a certain degree. Ford’s ingenuity has been its greatest help & it’s greatest hindrance through its troubled existence, not to mention the fact that it chases this “wannabe euro” image that it’s been doing for God only knows how long. Now, this is not to say Ford has not had some good points and good engines. The 5.8L Trinity, the 5.0 coyote, the 5.4L Supercharged GT500 and lightning V8 engines, the pushrod 5.0L EFI, the 5.8L pushrod EFI, the 289Hi-Po, the 427 SOHC V8, the 427 Interceptor the 351 Cleveland, the 351 Boss and the 351 Cobra Jet. Ford has produced some rockin’ small blocks for quite some time, even a little known about Paxton Supercharged Factory GT350 from 1966-1967. It isn’t rocket science to make cars that people love and Ford had been doing a fairly good job for awhile but then the Ecoboost era arrive and alot went downhill, even though alot of good tech came from the Ecoboost project. Ford would do good with a change of mindset and taking some of its newfound knowledge and blend it with some of its old school brute. For example, Any of us who follow products from Ford Performance know of the 5.8L Trinity V8 (basically a supercharged 351ci DOHC V8) we also know of the Cobra Jet products Ford had for the 5.0L V8, what’s stopping Ford from taking the 5.8L V8 block, topping it with Gen-3 Coyote Tech, slapping a Cobra Jet style intake on it, putting some GT350 style exhaust manifold on the side, giving it a good exhaust, a 10-speed auto/7-speed manual, Magnetic ride suspension and a few other things, dropping it into a mustang and calling it the Mach 1? Better yet, what’s stopping Ford from taking that same 5.8L V8, boring it out to 427ci (like it does with it’s pushrod V8), slapping a supercharger on the top of it and putting that into the GT500? Chevy just had a 7-Liter Camaro a few short years ago and Dodge is 392 and Hellcat crazy so why not? Funny enough, the GT350 Mustang started life as a 4.7L 289 HiPO with an optional supercharger before moving up to a 302 and then finally a 351W in 1969 and now its a Ferrari wannabe flat crank 5.2L. That’s sad. how about a 4.7L twin turbo V8 with a 10-speed auto/7-speed manual setup with most of the same exterior but with a more modern nose/headlamp setup, a full width LED sequential tail lamp setup and a few other things. now that would be a GT350 for the win!. Beyond the Mustang, how about a real Ford Bronco based of an F150 truck? a Ford Maverick performance crossover with a 5.0L Maverick Grabber option 10-speed auto, AWD and a few other things, How about a 5.0L Explorer to go head to head with the Durango SRT, the Return of the F150 Lightning and F150 Harley Davidson pickup trucks, the return of the V8 Raptor, a Ford Falcon sedan, a Ford Thunderbird to help bring back the return of the Chevy Monte Carlo and compete with the BMW 8-Series and Mercedes S-Class coupe, bring back the V8 expedition, give us a Lincoln Mark-Ten coupe based off the Mustang or the above mentioned Thunderbird concept with a 5.0L V8, how about giving us a RWD based V8 powered continental that looks like a continental, or better yet, Bring back Mercury so we can have some performance luxury cars to compete with the new Cadillac cars such a a Mercury Cougar Eliminator, XR7 & GTE, a Mercury Cyclone, and things like that. Of course you would still have to have your normal cars, but for goodness sakes get rid of the focus, fiesta, escape, edge and all of that stuff. The Bronco and Baby bronco (whatever you’re going to call it) along with the Maverick Crossover, Explorer and Expedition will suffice for all the SUV needs, glad to have the Ranger back finally. For the normal engines, a 3.8L DOHC V8 based on the Coyote 5.0L V8 would do wonders, especially with a little Forced induction as an option for some of the larger vehicles it would fit in. For a small car, the return of the Ford Escort would be a great idea. With a coupe, wagon & sedan and versions such as Pony, LX, GT, GXP & RS, you have everything you need. Ecoboost engines would live on here as the 1.0L 3cyl ecoboost would power the Pony & LX Escort, the 2.0L Ecoboost would power the GT, the 2.3L would power the GXP and the RS would be powered by a 2.3L Hybrid. And there you have it. At that point, all would be right in the world of Ford.