GM seeks to restore EV tax credit

DETROIT — General Motors wants the federal government to change the rules so that GM and Tesla customers are no longer excluded from a $7,500 federal tax credit that's still available to buyers of electric vehicles from every other manufacturer.

Steve Carlisle, president of GM North America, said the automaker is simply asking the Biden administration to go back to a level playing field as GM prepares to roll out an abundance of EVs in the coming years.

"Incentives are an important consideration at the phase that we're in," he said during Automotive News' Congress Conversations virtual event last week.

GM is ineligible for the full credit of up to $7,500 per vehicle after passing the 200,000 cumulative EV sales threshold in late 2018. Partial credits were available to GM EV buyers from April 2019 to April 2020.

President Joe Biden's $174 billion proposal to increase EV production includes $100 billion in customer rebates and $15 billion to build charging stations.

"Given all the potential barriers to adoption and the fact that we need to get moving along that curve, I think incentives in many different forms enter into the conversation," Carlisle said. "A level playing field is a reasonable thing to aspire to."

CEO Mary Barra told CNBC last week that GM shouldn't be penalized for launching EVs earlier than every other U.S. automaker except Tesla, whose credits expired in 2018.

"That tax credit of $7,500 is significant in a purchase decision," Barra said.

"We'd like to see that [cap] lifted and let the marketplace decide and not penalize first movers."

GM has a deeper stake in EV sales than many competitors. Today, GM sells just one EV in the U.S., the Bolt, which launched in 2016. Bolt sales, bolstered by generous incentives, climbed 26 percent last year to 20,754.

But GM has pledged to invest $27 billion in electric and autonomous vehicle development and plans to launch 30 EVs globally through 2025, two-thirds of which are slated for North America.

A freshened Bolt EV and the new Bolt EUV crossover are slated to arrive in showrooms this summer, followed by the GMC Hummer EV pickup late this year and the Cadillac Lyriq crossover early next year.

The Bolts, powered by GM's previous-generation battery, will each start at less than $34,000, including shipping. The Hummer will cost nearly $113,000 initially, and the Lyriq's base price is just less than $60,000.

GM aspires to have an all-electric light-vehicle lineup in North America by 2035.

The company has partnered with EV charging companies and battery manufacturers to make EVs more accessible.