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Tesla revenue from NZ EV rebates hint at potential IRA benefits [Feature]
Tesla doubled its revenue after New Zealand’s Clean Car policy introduced rebates to decarbonize its fleet. Tesla New Zealand’s revenue hints at the potential benefits of the United States Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
According to the company’s financial records, Tesla New Zealand’s (NZ) revenue for the 2022 calendar year was $499.5 million (USD$303.3), double the company’s $230.7 million (USD$140.1) revenue in 2021. New Zealand’s acting Transport Minister Kieran McAnulty believes the government’s Clean Car policy helped Tesla’s revenues double.
“With over 100,000 rebates granted since the scheme came into effect in 2021, we have one of the fastest uptakes of EVs in the world,” McAnulty said.
Tesla New Zealand’s revenues in the past show an increase in EV adoption. Tesla NZ’s revenue in 2020 was $66 million (USD$40 million) and increased to $230.7 million (USD$ 140.1 million) in 2021. Tesla Giga Shanghai definitely factors into the company’s increased revenues in New Zealand and Australia between 2020 and 2021. However, the New Zealand government’s EV rebates might have aided Tesla’s leap from $230.7 million to $499.5 million between 2021 and 2022.
“The cost of EVs has reduced significantly over the past couple of years. Several popular models are now available for $50,000 to $60,000, whereas previously EVs tended to be closer to $80,000. Rebates for used-import EVs will rise from $3450 to $3507.50 – as the supply of used-import EVs remains restricted. The increased rebates will encourage suppliers to continue to focus on securing supply for New Zealanders,” McAnulty commented.
The New Zealand Herald analyzed data that revealed Tesla benefited significantly from Clean Car policy rebates. Since 2021 when the policy began, 9,730 Teslas were purchased for a total of $83 million (USD$ 50.4 million) rebates paid to the people who bought the electric vehicles (EVs).
New Zealand’s government plans to update its Clean Car policy this year. The update will reduce rebates offered for new zero-emission vehicles—described as electric vehicles by the government—from $8,625 (USD$5238) to $7,015 (USD$4,260). New Zealand also changed rebates offered for used imports and disability vehicles while applying charges for specific emissions. New Zealand’s Clean Car Policy changes will apply from July 1, 2023.
The Inflation Reduction Act’s Potential Impact
New Zealand’s Clean Car Policy hints that people are willing to transition to electric vehicles for the right price. The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) might yield the same results for Tesla and other EV manufacturers in the United States.
Elon Musk and the Tesla board seem well aware of the IRA’s potential impact on the electric vehicle and global auto market.
“The regulations here are still in flux and there continues to be updates, so this is just our best understanding at the moment. But we think on the order of $150 million to $250 million per quarter this year and growing over the course of the year as our volumes grow,” said Tesla’s Chief Financial Officer Zachary Kirkhorn at the Q4 2022 earnings call.
The IRA doesn’t just affect local automakers and their suppliers either. Companies worldwide involved in EV manufacturing or its supply chain have started investing in the United States to reap the benefits of the IRA. For instance, South Korean battery supplier LG Energy Solutions (LGES) has partnered with a few automakers to build cell manufacturing plants in the United States. LGES has battery plant agreements with Hyundai, Honda, and Ford. Tesla is prepared to take advantage of the IRA’s incentives as well.
“And part of the work we’re doing here, which is part of what this incentive package is trying to incentivize, is, as Elon mentioned, to move more manufacturing onshore in the United States, which is Tesla’s plans anyways. And so, I think we’re pretty well positioned over the coming years to take advantage of this.
“But then also part of what the goal of this incentive package is, is to improve adoption from our customers. And so, we also want to use these incentives to improve affordability as we think about what the price points are in our products going forward,” stated Kirkhorn.
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The Tesla Semi is entering a new Pilot Program with Paper Transport, LLC (PTI), a Wisconsin-based transportation provider. The company will test the Semi’s Long Range configuration through “dedicated operations within the Chicago market.”
Chicago presents an interesting challenge for the Semi, as it will be a colder-weather climate that will test the Semi’s ability to operate in lower temperatures and in potentially large accumulations of snow. This is something Tesla has been testing with the Semi in Alaska and even in Northern California during the colder months, but Chicago will present a truly tough midwestern winter.
Tesla Semi spotted on journey home after winter performance testing
PTI says it is using the Semi to evaluate its strategy of reducing transportation emissions while maintaining performance, reliability, and cost efficiency. These are major arguments for the Semi being introduced into new fleets.
CEO of PTI Tyler Ellison said:
“PTI has been a leader in sustainable transportation solutions for over 15 years. We take a consultative approach to helping customers identify and implement the right transportation solution for their network. Our partnership with Tesla expands our portfolio alongside renewable natural gas and intermodal, giving customers more ways to reduce Scope 3 emissions without compromising service or economics.”
PTI is far from the first company to adopt the Semi within a fleet, as Tesla entered strategic agreements with PepsiCo. and its subsidiary Frito-Lay for a Pilot Program that extended throughout the California region.
Tesla has let companies like those utilize the Semi to determine whether it would be suitable for their operations. Additionally, Tesla gets valuable information regarding the Semi’s performance, knowing what to improve and what is ideal for companies that will utilize the all-electric truck for regional and nationwide logistics.
PTI plans to utilize the Long Range configuration, which is priced at $290,000 and features a range of approximately 500 miles, a three-motor powertrain, up to 800 kW of drive power, and consumption of just 1.7 kWh per mile.
Tesla Semi pricing revealed after company uncovers trim levels
VP of Maintenance at PTI, Bryan Ellen, added:
“We are excited to partner with Tesla, leveraging their ever-evolving technology. We are bullish in our estimation of the parallels available between our dedicated model and the efficiency of their fully electric Class 8 tractor. We anticipate a growing synergy between our businesses as we work to facilitate this sustainable solution for our customers.”
PTI has logged more than 87 million miles using sources like compressed and renewable gas, but now is looking to take it a step further with fully electric operations.
Tesla revealed on Monday that it is building a new autonomous vehicle at Gigafactory Texas, its plant just outside of the City of Austin. This particular vehicle will be geared toward those who are in need of a wheelchair-accessible car that would require no human driver for operation.
According to a new report from Wired, Tesla’s Senior Policy Advisor, India Herdman, told members of the Washington D.C. City Council on Monday:
“We are in development for a purpose-built, wheelchair-accessible autonomous vehicle. We know that paratransit can be very difficult, and people who are confined to wheelchairs permanently should still be able to move around freely, so that is an active product being built by Tesla in Texas.”
This builds upon what CEO Elon Musk said last year on X, which confirmed the company was working on accessible rides within its Robotaxi platform, which currently is confined to the Model Y.
Absolutely
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 19, 2025
Tesla is also developing the Cybercab, which started employee rides last week. However, this vehicle is not necessarily geared toward wheelchair accessibility.
That leaves a major gap in the autonomous ride-sharing program that Tesla is attempting to build; the company has been pretty clear that it does not want to complicate its manufacturing lines by bringing in a wide array of body styles.
However, it seems necessary to have something larger that could help transport people to appointments when they cannot drive. For wheelchair accessibility, the Robovan, which was unveiled at the “We, Robot” event in October 2024, seems to be the most ideal solution:
Herdman did not indicate whether she was referring to the Robovan or if Tesla is building yet another body style that is geared toward full autonomy but also caters to the handicapped.
Tesla might need to develop something specifically for the handicapped in order to align with the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prevents discrimination against people with disabilities in transportation services. Uber was hit with a lawsuit late last year for “refusing to reasonably modify its policies, practices, or procedures where necessary to avoid discriminating against riders with disabilities.”
Tesla would obviously like to avoid this.
It will be interesting to see what Tesla will do with this project, and whether it will introduce something new to the market or just continue with the Robovan.
Tesla weirdly confirmed that its steering wheel-less and pedal-less Cybercab vehicle is now in the process of giving employees rides, a huge milestone for the vehicle program.
But the entire thing was super strange. On Friday, Tesla released a video stating that there was “Cool news from Giga Texas” and that employees were now taking rides in Cybercabs that have no manual controls. The units seen on public roads are engineering vehicles that have manual controls inside, a necessity as Tesla moved through the testing phase.
However, Tesla removed the video and reposted it shortly after with a more vague title. It seems like the employee rides are still going, but the video was adjusted slightly. The initial upload showed employees doing things like watching movies and adjusting the climate, but these snippets were removed in the second upload.
Cool news from Giga Texas pic.twitter.com/gvbG456Tzw
— Tesla Robotaxi (@robotaxi) July 11, 2026
Both images below were uploaded with the first video, but were removed after Tesla re-uploaded the announcement. These are not available in the second upload
Credit: Tesla
Credit: Tesla
Nevertheless, the announcement from Tesla is that the Cybercab is operating with employees inside who can control the vehicle’s audio, video, climate, and destination settings through their smartphone app.
Tesla has already been testing Cybercab engineering units, but last month, it was able to self-certify for SAE Level 4, which would enable unsupervised self-driving in Texas. The company is moving toward that, and the plans have always been to launch Cybercab rides this year.
The Cybercab is potentially looked at as the next generation of Tesla’s mobility leg. For the past 15 years, the company has been known as somewhat of an automaker, among many other things. However, these passenger vehicles that Tesla has manufactured are now moving into a new realm, as they will eventually drive themselves with no supervision thanks to the Full Self-Driving suite.
The Cybercab is just the next step of that: a true vehicle developed for the sole purpose of ride-hailing. It has no human controls, it has only two seats, and it will get passengers from Point A to Point B with no awkward driver, no need for manual inputs, and with no stress.
Tesla is moving forward with other developments related to the Cybercab project as well. However, the big announcement will come when Tesla finally announces that it is launching Cybercab rides to the general public, something that it plans to launch either late this year or early 2027.
Tesla Semi enters new Pilot Program with interesting challenge
Tesla is building a wheelchair-accessible Robotaxi
