Latest news with #AlternativeFuelVehicleRefuelingPropertyCredit
Yahoo
27-06-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Carmax, Carvana and other retailers implore Senate to preserve EV incentives
Carmax, Carvana and other auto retailers are urging the Senate to preserve electric vehicle incentives in the budget bill, arguing that abruptly axing the tax credits would threaten dealerships that have invested in EV sales and service. Automakers have required many dealerships to make large investments in EV infrastructure, including on-site chargers and service bay equipment. 'Dealerships like ours have invested billions of dollars as small businesses to serve our communities, to improve EV education, and offer exceptional service,' dealers said in the June 26 letter. 'We need a stable and consistent market for our dealerships to plan, invest, and grow.' The dealers said tax credits for new and used clean vehicles, the Advanced Manufacturing Production Tax Credit meant to incentivize battery production, the Alternative Fuel Vehicle Refueling Property Credit and others 'must continue, even in a reduced form, for at least the next several years.' The retailers also oppose the annual $250 EV and $100 hybrid registration fee proposed by House Republicans. 'EV drivers would be paying disproportionately and discouragingly high taxes under such a proposal,' they said in the letter. The Senate committee proposal did not include the EV and hybrid registration fees. Nineteen dealerships, dealership groups and remarketing companies and five other EV stakeholders — including Recurrent, Plug In America and the Electric Vehicle Association — signed the letter as of the afternoon of June 26. Sign up for the weekly Automotive News Mobility Report newsletter for the latest developments at the intersection of transportation and technology. Dealers and their representatives at the National Automobile Dealers Association have generally criticized EV incentives established under the Biden administration. The letter marks a shift as Congress considers eliminating the federal government's support for EVs through the budget bill ahead of a self-imposed July 4 deadline. David O'Brien, used-car sales manager at Campbell Auto Group's Volkswagen and Nissan stores in Edmonds, Wash., said he signed the letter because the EV tax credits have reduced costs for consumers and generated new business. He said he supports keeping the credits or phasing them out gradually. The Senate text would eliminate the $7,500 EV tax credit 180 days after passage. The House version would stop the credit at the end of 2025. The credits have helped consumers save money and also enabled lower fuel and car payment expenses, O'Brien said. 'Probably 40 percent of our [sales] are electric cars,' O'Brien said. 'We are 15 miles north of Seattle, so we're in a really nice location for people to do short commutes and to use electric cars in a good way.' Without the credits, O'Brien said sales would fall 25 to 30 percent. Most automakers said the elimination of the tax credits would not change their sales strategy when asked by Automotive News. But some acknowledged the price impact. 'If tax credits are abolished, the price competitiveness of BEVs and PHEVs relative to internal combustion engine vehicles is generally expected to decline,' Mazda said in an email to Automotive News on June 18. Most EV buyers cited tax credits and incentives as a key reason for purchasing a new electric vehicle in 2024 and 2025, according to a J.D. Power survey. The used EV discounts have helped working- and middle-class car buyers purchase EVs, retailers said in the letter. 'Sudden elimination will disrupt the used car market, a backbone of the American economy,' the letter said. 'A multi-year transitional period would also provide the opportunity for Americans to continue adopting cleaner vehicles more affordably.' Alex Lawrence, owner of EV Auto in Bountiful, Utah, also said he supports a gradual phaseout rather than an abrupt end. He said a change in the credit rules helped broaden the market. 'When they changed the rule to allow customers to use [the tax credit] as a down payment rather than a deduction on their taxes, it opened up a whole new world of opportunity for middle-class and lower middle-class folks to qualify for loans that would allow them to buy transportation that was reliable,' Lawrence said. Because of this, he supports a phaseout over a few years. 'I sure wish they were willing to consider these other benefits that are created in the market for the middle class, upper middle class and car dealers, and reconsider just taking a hatchet to it,' Lawrence said. However, Lawrence believes EV Auto will succeed even without the credits. 'My business was successful and profitable before the tax credit, and it will be successful and profitable after that,' Lawrence said. Mark Hollmer contributed to this report. Have an opinion about this story? Tell us about it and we may publish it in print. Click here to submit a letter to the editor. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Newsweek
26-06-2025
- Health
- Newsweek
American Lung Association President: Electric School Buses Protect Kids' Health. Congress Should Continue To Support Them
For those of us who took the school bus as children, the smell of diesel exhaust is almost a core memory; I remember how it would linger in my nose and lungs as I rode to school, and the sight of the afternoon line of school buses shrouded in smoke from the exhaust. For me, the diesel smell seemed like an inconvenience, but I didn't know it was negatively impacting my health. For kids with asthma, the impacts were more apparent. This is still the experience of too many children today, as most of the half million school buses on the road are diesel-powered. While stronger pollution standards have made these vehicles cleaner than they used to be, they still spew exhaust that impacts student health and even learning outcomes. The toxic exhaust from diesel-burning buses is unsafe for students, drivers, and residents of the communities they drive through and park in. An electric school bus is pictured. An electric school bus is pictured. Getty Images There is a solution that reduces pollution exposure while improving kids' health: electric school buses, the only type of school bus with no tailpipe emissions. Over a quarter of a million students already ride these clean buses to school each day. To ensure more children have the opportunity to ride on clean, electric school buses, I strongly urge federal lawmakers to preserve two critical tax incentives, the Qualified Commercial Clean Vehicle Credit (45W), a tax credit that provides up to $40,000 for each delivered electric school bus, and the Alternative Fuel Vehicle Refueling Property Credit (30C), which allows entities to claim a credit for up to 30 percent of the cost of qualified property, such as electric school bus charging infrastructure. I have worked at the American Lung Association for more than 40 years and now serve as the president and CEO. For more than 50 years, we have known about the health impacts of vehicle emissions and the particularly harmful emissions of diesel engines. It is time—and our responsibility—to ensure that all children have a healthy ride to school. According to the Lung Association's most recent State of the Air report, 46 percent of Americans—156.1 million people—are living in places that get failing grades for unhealthy levels of ozone or particle pollution. Diesel exhaust, in particular, is dangerous for everyone to breathe, even healthy adults, but children are especially sensitive to the variety of pollutants known to cause lung cancer and respiratory harm and impact cognitive development. The health impacts of air pollution are not felt equally. The State of the Air report also found that a person of color is more than twice as likely to live in a community with a failing grade for all three measures of pollution covered in the report. Communities that have been historically disadvantaged are more likely to be exposed to vehicle-based air pollution due to lending, transit, housing, and zoning policies that concentrated Black and brown communities closer to highways and other pollution sources. The good news is we already know one thing that can help: a widespread transition to zero-emission vehicles and electricity, including buses, would dramatically improve the health of children. According to another Lung Association report, the transition would prevent 2.79 million pediatric asthma attacks and millions of other respiratory symptoms and save over 500 infant lives by 2050. More communities than ever have the opportunity to transition to clean, tailpipe-emissions-free electric school buses, thanks in large part to federal incentives like tax credits and grant programs. Since 2021, the number of electric school buses on the road or on their way to school districts has increased almost tenfold, and 1,500 school districts have said yes to electric school buses across the nation. There's clear demand for electric school buses, but it's only just getting started and needs continued policy support to drive the transition. It is imperative that lawmakers protect incentives like the 45W and 30C tax credits, which are popular and utilized across the country to help keep the wheels turning. Our kids deserve to live in a country where no student is forced to inhale toxic exhaust from their own bus just to get to and from school each day. With continued support from our elected officials, we can make it happen. Harold Wimmer is president and CEO of the American Lung Association. The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
