The Obama Admistration released a stimulus package that help New car buyers very little and does even less for Hybrid buyers. It does mention possible help for the Plug-in type Hybrid down the road but the does not extend the existing Hybrid tax credit. In a Nutshell, Toyota and Honda no longer qualify, the Ford hybrids will reach there limit sometime very soon, Nissan Altima (only available in 8 states) has some remaining months and GM will qualify for sometime because their Hybrids are just hitting ground.
The bulk of the impact lies on the (NEV’s) or the low-speed neighborhood electric vehicles. These small cars cannot travel more than 25 miles per hour and are made up of mainly, electric motorcycles, three-wheeled vehicles, and “gulf cart” type cars like the GEM. This group now qualify for a $2500.00 tax credit. Oh, I did forget to mention the $100,000.00 dollar Telsa would also qualify. Heck that brings it down to an affordable $97,500.00. 
Their answer for helping the 2009 auto industry, probably the worst in decades, is to allow you to deduct the sales tax from your federal return. This amounts to roughly a couple of hundred bucks even if your in a 35% bracket. WOW, now that is Stimulus…. The Telsa is looking better every paragraph.
If they would have taken time to really think about what would help…. Make a provision to deduct the interest on car loan interest. According to the National Auto Dealers Association, that plan could boost sales by roughly 360,000 vehicles in 2009.
In my opinion, Obama really dropped the ball by not extending the Hybrid tax credit. This is one way to boost auto sales and encourage people to make a difference and choose a Hybrid. What do you think? We are all in this together.
The Hybrid Guy
March 23, 2009 at 8:56 pm |
Interesting points. I found another interesting source that summarizes the impact of the stimulus package : http://cforick.com/blog/finance-employer-law