Featured Tesla To Lose Subsidies For The S In Germany

Kind of a sad story. Certainly Germany isn't the 1st country to be knee deep in industry protectionism, whether it be the Auto industry or many others. 1st - the €4K incentive money is legally (legislation lobbied for by {Audi/BMW/et al} the German automakers) based on EV's that ONLY cost LESS than a Model S. So, Tesla beats German auto industry at their own game, by offering a stripped version which then makes it qualify.
Then the German Auto industry beats Tesla, for beating them - at their own game, by putting out in their own Automotive rag that Tesla is fraudulent - by offering the lowest price Model S, & claim that they don't even offer it - when in fact they do.
Gotta love the German Auto industry (think DIESELGATE ) claiming fraud. They definately DO know all about fraud, for sure.
Oh well - if your industry is bound & determined to keep the oil burners on the road ... ya gotta do whatever it takes.
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I'm guessing that at least part of Germany's strategy will be to simply forestall the US EV industry's inroads into their market, as long as they can, which will give them a chance to get in the game in a more significant way.
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Is our GOP tax plan going to gut credits here?

 

iirc, tax credits were already set to expire with their Sunset provisions, so ... Maybe they can be reinstituted. It's likely manufacturers will try and extend them to get more buyers for their various products so - duno - both political sides can argue for or against these things - turning on which pigeonhole aspect they're looking at at any given moment.
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Guess this means Germany's not going to get the first Gigafactory in their country then. But it would be ironic if Tesla opened it in a neighboring country right by their border so as to get German engineers and workers to come and work for them anyway.

And Tesla continues to scare the German automakers into releasing serious contender EV's, since they keep stealing sales away from their gas cars with the Model S, and now likely the Model 3. And it'll be interesting to see what they come up with for a "Roadster 2.0-killer" since Tesla once again upped the bar.