General Motors replaces lost $7,500 EV credit with $6,000 lease support

General Motors (GM) has ended a program that was built to keep its dealers offering a $7,500 federal tax credit on electric vehicle leases beyond the September 30 cutoff. Instead, the company announced on Wednesday it would backstop lease deals with about $6,000 in support through its finance ￰0￱ change followed the official expiration of the government subsidy that had fueled a rush of electric vehicle sales last ￰1￱ scrapped plan was pulled together in the final days of ￰2￱ Motors had arranged for its lending unit, GM Financial, to buy EVs sitting on dealer lots and those still being ￰3￱ would have allowed the company to apply for the $7,500 credit on each car and then pass that amount into customer lease terms through the end of ￰4￱ said roughly 20,000 vehicles were covered under the plan before it was ￰5￱ Motors drops plan after objections in Washington The program came apart after Republican Senator Bernie Moreno of Ohio, who is a former car dealer now active in auto policy, raised ￰6￱ Senator’s objections were enough to push General Motors to ￰7￱ company allegedly told Reuters in a short statement that: “After further consideration, we have decided not to claim the tax credit,” while declining to give further ￰8￱ Financial had already started making payments before the program was canceled for a straightforward formula 5% of the maximum sticker price for each eligible ￰9￱ example, two Chevrolet Blazer EVs, each priced in the mid-$60,000s, qualified for a combined payment of around $6,300.

Those funds were meant to flow into leases as a substitute for the federal tax ￰10￱ Motors confirmed it will “fund the incentive lease terms” through the end of ￰11￱ means dealers can still write leases with support worth close to $6,000 per car, though it falls short of the $7,500 that customers had received under the federal ￰12￱ stopgap measure is temporary, giving customers only a narrow window to ￰13￱ plan was assembled in ￰14￱ officials held a call with dealers on September 29, just one day before the credit expired, to lay out ￰15￱ Financial would purchase cars in inventory so they would still qualify for the ￰16￱ were quickly issued before the midnight ￰17￱ industry executives and analysts have predicted that EV sales will take a hit now that the credit is ￰18￱ last days of September saw buyers flood showrooms, rushing to lock in deals before the subsidy ￰19￱ surge produced record electric vehicle sales for the ￰20￱ had been bracing for the fallout of the credit’s expiration, with many warning that once the subsidy disappeared, moving electric vehicles off lots would be much ￰21￱ dropped program was meant to soften that ￰22￱ claiming the tax credit itself, the company could have prevented dealers from being stuck with unsellable EVs in a market already ￰23￱ had already put together its own plan to manage the end of the federal subsidy, but it is not clear if that program remains ￰24￱ competition between the two automakers added urgency to GM’s scramble to put its deal in place before the September ￰25￱ up to Bybit and start trading with $30,050 in welcome gifts