Apparently German government officials have finally woken up to the realization that it's utterly ridiculous to use tax revenue generated primarily from middle and low-income households to fund subsidy payments to rich people buying $100,000 luxury sports cars. As Business Standard notes this morning, the German Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Controls announced that it will no longer subsidize the Tesla Model S as it can not be delivered in a configuration that meets the 60,000 euro price limit.
A German government agency has removed Tesla's Model S from the list of electric cars eligible for subsidies because it is not available in a version that falls within a 60,000 euro ($71,448) price limit.
Tesla customers could not order the Model S without extra features that pushed the price of the car above the limit, a spokesman for the German Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Controls (BAFA) said on Friday.
German magazine Auto Bild had reported that BAFA was looking into the issue and could take Tesla off the eligibility list.
According to Reuters, Germany launched their incentive scheme, worth about 1 billion euros, last year. The funding requirements were shared by the German car industry to boost electric car usage. A price cap was included to exempt premium models. Under the subsidy scheme, buyers get 4,000 euros off their all-electric vehicle purchase and 3,000 euros off plug-in hybrids.
Of course, Tesla has denied reports that their Model S does not comply with the price caps set under the subsidy scheme and has promised to "investigate and take appropriate action as necessary."
“This is a completely false accusation. Anyone in Germany can order a Tesla Model S base version without the comfort package, and we have delivered such cars to customers,” Tesla said in a statement.
”If a sales person told a customer they could not buy the Model S base version without the comfort package, this is not accurate and clearly outside our policies and procedures and we will investigate and take appropriate action as necessary.”
On the bright side, Tesla's new Model 3 should meet German subsidy price caps...if only they could figure out how to weld them together...