Column: EV tax credit needs a portal

The EV tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act are a mess: The eligibility of vehicles is opaque at best.

Even when the rules are written, they will still be very complex — limited by where the vehicle is made, where its battery components come from, where the minerals for the batteries came from, its classification. And that’s before we get to whether the customer qualifies for one credit or another.

It’s too much to expect of the mass-market consumer. What we need is a computer.

Call it a website, call it a portal. Whatever. We need someplace we can go to find out if a vehicle qualifies for a $7,500 credit, a $3,750 credit or nothing.

It’s going to have to be VIN-specific, because some models are made in different places or equipped differently in ways that regulators deem crucial, like whether an ID4 has all-wheel drive or rear-wheel drive.

Ultimately, each vehicle is unique.

“Having one central location for that data, we think adds transparency for dealers who have to conduct the transaction,” John Bozzella, CEO of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, said on our LinkedIn Live broadcast Thursday, “as well as consumers who want to benefit from the tax credit.”

He’s empathetic that the IRS is struggling to translate legislation into tax code. But to synthesize all the necessary information, they will almost certainly end up with some kind of website. I’d like to see one before 2024, when the credit is supposed to be granted at the point of sale.

“At some point,” Bozzella said, “I think the portal is inevitable.”