Germany forces 1,050 Tesla owners to forgo €2,000 electric car subsidy

Germany’s Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control said 1,050 owners of a Tesla Model S will be forced to forgo a 2,000 euro electric car subsidy because the value of their vehicles had surpassed an eligibility threshold.The office on 18 July said only vehicles costing 60,000 euros or less qualified for Germany’s “environmental bonus”. Because it had found that Tesla was delivering higher specification vehicles costing more than €60,000, the Tesla Model S was removed from the subsidy list on 30 November 30.[caption id="attachment_4606671" align="alignnone" width="1280"]

A man looks around Tesla Motors' Model S P85 at its showroom in Beijing. Image: Reuters[/caption]“The subsidy needs to be repaid by 800 people who had received it, and another 250 customers who had been notified they were eligible... will now not receive it,” a spokeswoman said on 18 July.Because Tesla has started delivering its base model in Germany again, customers who bought cars costing less than 60,000 euros are once again eligible to apply for the bonus, the spokeswoman said.