California Sweetens The Pot On EV Purchases - Consumers Can Go All In And Get $14.5K In Incentives

California has refreshed its “Clean Fuel Rewards” program, increasing the amount to $1,500 upfront (no application required) and simplifying availability to customers statewide. The new incentive is available for any eligible electric vehicle (including motorcycles!) purchased from a participating retailer starting today, November 17.

As this is a refresh of California’s previous Clean Fuel program, which was a collaboration between the California Air Resources Board and electric utility providers, those previous utility programs will disappear at the end of this year. But other incentives still exist, and until the end of the year, the utility incentives are still active — which means customers who buy before December 31 can double-up and save an extra grand or so.

atc98092 - 11/18/2020 2:43:28 PM

+2 Boost

To be fair, the majority of EV buyers will NOT qualify for the entire amount. First, Tesla and GM no longer qualify for the federal tax credit, so that cuts the potential amount in half. And some of the other credits are income based, so again the majority of potential EV buyers likely won't qualify.

So someone that doesn't meet the income requirement and wants a Bolt, can get at most $4500. Pick something other than Tesla or GM, then yeah you can score pretty well, only losing out on the $2500 low income credit.