Electric trucks such as the Tesla Semi and Lion Electric will receive incentives of up to $40,000 under the newly proposed Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 in the United States.
Original title: Tesla Semi to receive up to $40,000 in subsidies
Last week, the U.S. Senate’s announcement of the Reducing Inflation Act of 2022 sparked concern in the auto industry about federal electric vehicle tax credit reform, which would bring back incentives for Tesla and GM electric vehicle buyers. There are other elements of the bill that relate to electric vehicles. For example, a section related to “commercial clean vehicles,” which is expected to apply to electric trucks, would provide incentives of up to $40,000 for commercial clean vehicles weighing more than 14,000 pounds.
The bill indicates that the amount provided will not exceed $7,500 for qualified commercial clean vehicles (A) with a gross weight of less than 14,000 pounds and $40,000 for qualified commercial clean vehicles that are not in category (A). This may be primarily to encourage sales of electric semi-trailer trucks such as the Tesla Semi, Daimler Freightliner Cascadia, or even hydrogen fuel cell trucks such as those produced by Nikola.
For example, the Tesla Semi has a starting price of $150,000, and at that price point, electric trucks already cost more per mile to operate than the diesel trucks that currently dominate the trucking industry. The $40,000 incentive, however, would bring the starting price of the Tesla Semi down to $110,000 and would make the cost per mile of this electric truck more competitive. The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, if passed, would be an incentive at the federal level, but there are also some incentives for commercial electric trucks in U.S. states, such as California.
However, such incentives are primarily driving demand, and demand is no longer an issue for electric trucks such as the Tesla Semi. Tesla is reported to have a backlog of orders for thousands of Semi’s. Currently, the main issue facing electric trucks is increasing production, including electric semi-trailers and the required batteries. It is reported that each type of electric semi truck requires 5 to 10 times more cells than a regular electric car.
