Subsidies are the car industry’s fentanyl. From Eric Peters at ericpetersautos.com:
The problem with getting hooked on something – whether it’s booze, or subsidies – is that it’s hard to quit once you are.
Just ask the car industry.
It has become dependent on subsidies – in the form of “tax breaks” – to get people to “buy” electric vehicles; the “buying” in air-fingers-quotation marks to mock the fact that when someone else is paying, you’re not really buying.
Tesla built its business model on this form of grift, elaborated in several ways. The way most people don’t even know about was using federal/state regulations that required other car companies – which at the time did not build any electric vehicles – to either build electric vehicles, in order to to satisfy “zero emissions” vehicle manufacturing quotas – or buy credits from Tesla that satisfied the requirement without having to actually build (and try to sell) EVs themselves.
In this manner, Tesla got his rivals to finance his business.
Not unlike having to pay salary of the cop who “pulled you over” via the “fine” you are made to pay for some conjured “offense.”
The lesser offense was using the government to make it easier to “sell” electric cars by paying the “buyer” a large sum of money – via tax rebates – to offset their otherwise unmarketable prices. Take $7,500 off the price (or cost) of any car and it is probable you’ll sell more of them.
Conversely, do not take $7,500 off and fewer people will buy them.
Chiefly because they can’t.
STRAIGHT LINE LOGIC 