Automakers, governments seek changes to US EV tax rules
WASHINGTON - Hyundai Motor Group and other automakers want the United States to delay implementation of new electric vehicle tax credit rules that make vehicles assembled outside North America ineligible.
South Korea, Japan, Brazil and the European Union have criticized the overhaul of the $7500 EV tax credit signed into law in August by President Joe Biden as part of the Inflation Reduction Act that immediately disqualified most EVs for credits.
The US Treasury last month sought input from automakers and others as it implements the new law.
South Korea said it should be treated the same as North American countries or “a grace period of three years should be provided for the implementation of clean vehicle tax credits.”
Hyundai, which is building a $5.54 billion electric vehicle and battery plant in Georgia, asked
Treasury to allow its foreignmade EVs to be eligible until it begins US EV production.
The EU said in comments the law “risks causing not only economic damage to both the US and its closest trading partners ... but could also trigger a harmful global subsidy race to the bottom on key technologies and inputs for the green transition.”
Vietnamese carmaker VinFast, which plans to begin building EVs in North Carolina in 2024, said it is “not looking for perpetual exemptions to the final assembly rule, but rather to ensure that the implementation of this change does not undermine the investments we are making.”
The Japanese government said Treasury should use flexible interpretation of “final assembly” and “North America” to “ensure that EVs produced by allies such as Japan are accorded treatment no less favourable” than North American countries. ■