Connect with us

Elon Musk

How Tesla could benefit from the ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ that axes EV subsidies

Tesla has a few paths to limit damage from the elimination of tax credits.

Published

5 months ago

on

President Donald J. Trump purchases a Tesla on the South Lawn, Tuesday, March 11, 2025. (Official White House Photo by Molly Riley)
President Donald J. Trump purchases a Tesla on the South Lawn, Tuesday, March 11, 2025. (Official White House Photo by Molly Riley)

The United States House of Representatives passed President Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” by a vote of 215 to 214 on Thursday, effectively bringing an end to many EV subsidy programs, like the $7,500 tax credit, by the end of this year.

The bill will not only eliminate the $7,500 credit on new EV purchases, but also the $4,000 credit given on the purchase of used electric vehicles, and a $1,000 credit on the installation of Level 2 chargers. It will also impact solar subsidies that help generate clean energy in a residential setting.

EVs would also be subject to a $250 road use fee.

All of these things sound like negatives — truly because they are. Those who are not in a financial position to buy an EV this year, even with the tax credit, might not be able to afford them in the coming years either, unless manufacturers are able to bring pricing to a level that is more accessible to consumers.

In theory, President Trump’s focus on bringing manufacturing back to America would bring prices down, but it won’t happen overnight. Companies will take many years to completely bring manufacturing and part sourcing to the United States.

However, Tesla could feel some positives from this bill, and it all comes down to timing. Of course, in the long term, it wouldn’t be great for the company, especially if it did not have two things going on right now: a slightly lagging delivery pace and the introduction of affordable models.

Tax Credit Sunsetting Advantage

Sunsetting the $7,500 tax credit means one thing: those who have been in limbo over buying an EV from Tesla are going to have to make a decision on whether they want to buy this year and still have access to the credit, or test their luck and hope for price reductions.

Advertisement

More than likely, those who have been on the fence will be willing to pull the trigger this year, and Tesla will definitely gain some sales from this fact alone. Other automakers will, too.

This could help offset Tesla’s slow start to the year, which has been caused by the changeover of production lines of the Model Y across each of its factories globally.

Affordable Models

Tesla said earlier this year that it will roll out affordable models in the first half of 2025. These cars are expected to be around the $30,000 mark, but the company has not shed any true information on what they will cost.

Potential affordable Tesla “Model 2/Model Q” test car spotted anew in Giga Texas

Ideally, the cars would cost under $30,000 without the EV tax credit, which would be more than accessible for many car buyers in the United States.

Advertisement

The introduction of models that are not in need of a tax credit to be affordable to the masses. This would help offset some of the losses Tesla might feel from cars losing the tax credit.

Related Topics:

Joey has been a journalist covering electric mobility at TESLARATI since August 2019. In his spare time, Joey is playing golf, watching MMA, or cheering on any of his favorite sports teams, including the Baltimore Ravens and Orioles, Miami Heat, Washington Capitals, and Penn State Nittany Lions. You can get in touch with joey at joey@teslarati.com. He is also on X @KlenderJoey. If you're looking for great Tesla accessories, check out shop.teslarati.com

Advertisement
Comments

Elon Musk

SpaceX aces Starship’s 11th launch with success in every mission objective

Published

36 minutes ago

on

October 14, 2025

By

Credit: SpaceX

SpaceX aces its eleventh Starship test launch on Monday evening, marking the company’s second consecutive takeoff that crossed off each of the planned mission objectives.

It was also the final launch of the V2 Starship rocket. The twelfth test flight will feature the larger V3 Starship rocket, followed by V4, which will eventually make the first trip to Mars.

The launch was overwhelmingly successful. In its 12th test flight, SpaceX was able to achieve every major mission objective, including the second successful deployment of Starlink satellite simulators and the relight of a Raptor engine while in space. The latter achievement demonstrated “a critical capability for future deorbit burns,” the company said.

The ship officially launched at 6:23 p.m. local time in Starbase, Texas, with all 33 engines igniting and sending the Ship to space.

Stage separation occurred just over eight minutes later, and Super Heavy started its descent back to the Gulf of America, where it successfully splashed down. The first part of the launch was complete.

Starlink simulators were deployed about twenty-one minutes after launch, as the Pez dispenser sent the faux-satellites out to space without any issue:

Advertisement

Perhaps the most anticipated part of the launch was with Starship’s banking maneuver and subsequent splashdown in the Indian Ocean.

Prior to Starship 11’s launch and successful re-entry and splashdown, SpaceX had lost a few vehicles during this portion of the previous flights.

However, the company had made tremendous improvements and has now aced two consecutive launches. On Monday, its approach and splashdown were both overwhelmingly successful:

Advertisement

The re-entry phase of this particular Starship launch aimed to gather data on the performance of the heatshield, SpaceX said. The heatshield was intentionally stressed to its limits to determine how much it could withstand without failing.

SpaceX will now turn its focus to the next vehicles, including V3, which is larger, more capable, and will help the company gather even more information about its launches into space:

CEO Elon Musk has said the third-generation Starship rocket will be built and tested by the end of the year.

Continue Reading

Elon Musk

Elon Musk teases ‘Banish’ feature to pair perfectly with Summon

Tesla has long promised the possibility of completely hands-off parking: arrive, drop off at the entrance, the car parks itself, and the car retrieves you at the end of your visit.

Published

1 day ago

on

October 13, 2025

By

Credit: Tesla China

Elon Musk has once again teased the “Banish” feature that could come to Tesla vehicles in the near future. It would be a perfect pairing to the popular Assisted Smart Summon (ASS), which the company launched earlier this year.

Banish has been something Tesla has teased for years. The company has promised the possibility of completely hands-off parking: arrive, drop off at the entrance, the car parks itself, and the car retrieves you at the end of your visit.

Ultimately, even though it is technically a driverless feature, Tesla has not refined its parking portion of the Full Self-Driving (Supervised) suite enough to release Banish to the public.

Tesla recently started performing specified parking tasks at the driver’s discretion. In the FSD (Supervised) v14.1 release, Tesla has added the ability to pick your parking scenario. Drivers can choose a Charger, Parking Lot, Curbside, Street, Driveway, or Parking Garage.

To achieve Banish, Tesla would have to gather enough data with these scenarios to then gain the capability to park after dropping vehicle occupants off.

Advertisement

However, CEO Elon Musk recently hyped Banish to the point of stating Teslas will be capable of it “in the near future.”

His remark came in response to a video where FSD v14.1 drove around a Costco parking lot for twenty minutes looking for a spot:

Summon is a feature that has given Tesla its challenges, but the release of Assisted Smart Summon (ASS) has improved some of its capabilities.

I tested it after receiving v14.1, and it did a great job of taking the correct route and driving safely to my location:

There will likely be some time between now and when Tesla is able to release Banish. As previously noted, Tesla will need to collect enough data from real-world scenarios and obtain a proven track record of being able to handle lots and parking in a variety of environments while supervised.

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Elon Musk

SpaceX is preparing to launch Starship V2 one final time

The mission will test reentry dynamics, new landing burn configurations, and heat-shield upgrades.

Published

2 days ago

on

October 12, 2025

By

Credit: SpaceX/X

SpaceX is preparing to launch its final Starship V2 rocket on October 13, 2025. The launch closes the curtain on Starship V2 and marks the start of the ambitious spacecraft’s V3 era. 

Liftoff for Flight 11 is scheduled for 7:15 p.m. ET from Starbase in South Texas, with a 75-minute launch window. The mission will test reentry dynamics, new landing burn configurations, and heat-shield upgrades ahead of the transition to the next-generation Starship V3.

Starship V3 and beyond

Elon Musk confirmed on X that Starship V3 is already in production and could be “built & tested” and perhaps even flown before the end of 2025. The new version is expected to feature major performance and scale improvements, with Musk stating that Starship V3, provided that things go well, might be capable of reaching Mars, though V4 is more likely to perform a full-scale mission to the red planet. 

“Only one more V2 left to launch,” Musk wrote back in August following Starship’s successful Flight 10 mission. In another post, Musk stated that “Starship V3 is a massive upgrade from the current V2 and should be through production and testing by end of year, with heavy flight activity next year.”

Starship V2’s final mission

Flight 11 is designed to push the limits of Starship V2. SpaceX engineers have intentionally removed heat-shield tiles in vulnerable areas to analyze how the vehicle handles atmospheric reentry under stress, as noted in a Space.com report. The test will also refine subsonic guidance algorithms and new landing burn sequences for the Super Heavy booster that would be used for Starship V3.

Advertisement

“Super Heavy will ignite 13 engines at the start of the landing burn and then transition to a new configuration with five engines running for the divert phase. Previously done with three engines, the planned baseline for V3 Super Heavy will use five engines during the section of the burn responsible for fine-tuning the booster’s path, adding additional redundancy for spontaneous engine shutdowns. 

“The booster will then transition to its three center engines for the end of the landing burn, entering a full hover while still above the ocean surface, followed by shutdown and dropping into the Gulf of America,” SpaceX wrote in a post on its official website.

Continue Reading

Trending