A man connects a charging plug to a 2017 Chevrolet hybrid electric vehicle (EV) from General Motors Co. (GM) at a charging station in Jeju, South Korea.
SeongJoon Cho | Bloomberg | Getty Images
DETROIT – Tesla, Toyota Motor and other carmakers criticize proposed $ 12,500 tax incentives for electric vehicles that include extra money for Union-made cars and trucks in the United States
Executives for automakers, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk, said the $ 4,500 incentive for vehicles assembled at a union plant unfairly favors General Motors, Ford Motor and Stellantis (formerly Fiat Chrysler). The United Auto Workers union represents the hourly workers of these automakers (traditionally known as Detroit 3).
The comments came ahead of the EV incentive package that the House Roads and Media Committee discussed Tuesday as part of a $ 3.5 trillion spending bill.
“This is written by Ford / UAW pressure groups as they manufacture their electric car in Mexico. It’s not obvious how this serves American taxpayers,” Musk posted Sunday night.
Ford’s only all-electric vehicle is currently the Mach-E Mustang crossover built in Mexico. The company plans to produce electric versions of the F-150 van and Transit van in the United States starting next year.
Tesla produces the largest number of vehicle and electric car batteries in the U.S., but its workforce, like Toyota and other non-domestic automakers, is not represented by any union. Hyundai, Honda and Nissan are also opposed to the bill, and consider the incentive generated by the union to be unfair and partial.
Incentives include a current tax credit of $ 7,500 to purchase a plug-in electric vehicle and $ 500 if the vehicle’s battery is manufactured in the United States. re-opt for incentive. Buyers of electric vehicles produced by unionized workers in the U.S. would be eligible for an additional $ 4,500 in tax credits, which would bring the total incentives to $ 12,500.
Toyota described the bill as “unfair” and “incorrect,” citing the proposal discriminating against its non-unionized U.S. workforce.
“The current draft of the Forms and Means Committee makes the goal of accelerating the deployment of electrified vehicles secondary to discriminating against American auto workers based on their choice not to unionize,” executives said. Toyota manufacturing in a letter Monday to committee chairs. “This is unfair, it is wrong and we ask you to reject this blatantly biased proposal.”
Honda made similar comments in a statement on its website: “If Congress is seriously trying to address the climate crisis, as well as its goal of building these vehicles in America, it should address all electric vehicles manufactured by northern automakers. – Americans in an equitable and equitable manner: to urge Congress to eliminate discriminatory unionization between languages and incentives from its proposed budget conciliation. “
GM, Ford and Stellantis support the EV incentive package.
“This legislation will help more Americans incorporate electric vehicles, while also supporting U.S. industrial and union jobs,” said Kumar Galhotra, president of Ford’s Americas and International Markets.
President Joe Biden is pro-union and has continually supported incentives to expand U.S. production of electric vehicles.
Autos Drive America, a lobby organization representing international carmakers in the United States, called the EV incentive package “non-American” by creating a level playing field that will limit consumer choice and it will punish non-union American workers, their families and their communities. “
The proposed EV credits would last ten years, which will allow consumers to deduct the value of the credit from the sale price at the time of purchase, according to Reuters. Representative Dan Kildee, a Michigan Democrat who proposed the legislation, told the news organization that the new EV tax credit would cost between $ 33 and $ 34 billion over that time period.
President Joe Biden speaks during a tour of the Ford Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn, Michigan on May 18, 2021.
Michael Wayland | CNBC
Aside from the incentive generated by the union, members of the House Roads and Means Committee on Tuesday raised questions about the domestic contents of the vehicles, as well as about the bill that could benefit the rich.
The bill says individual taxpayers must have an adjusted gross income of no more than $ 400,000 to get the new tax credit. It would also limit electric vehicle credit to vehicles priced at no more than $ 55,000 and trucks up to $ 74,000.