Treasury: Nearly 9,000 auto dealers have registered for electric vehicle tax credit

More than 1,000 additional auto dealers have registered for the point-of-sale electric vehicle tax credit since it became available Jan. 1, the Treasury Department confirmed Friday morning.

Treasury officials told reporters that as of Friday, more than 8,700 dealers had registered for the credit, up from the 7,400 announced in late December. Alterations to the credit under the Inflation Reduction Act allow electric vehicle buyers to claim it upon purchase from registered dealers rather than waiting until filing their taxes the following year.

The 7,400 number was itself an increase from the 7,000 dealers announced earlier in December by the Biden administration.

Under the alterations to the credit, dealers must submit a “time-of-sale report” within a certain period after they sell an electric vehicle in order to claim the point-of-sale rebate.

Officials said dealers have submitted hundreds of such reports through IRS ECO, the electronic service launched by the IRS on Jan. 1. The IRS is set to extend the window to submit time-of-sale reports through Jan. 16 to allow dealers time to acclimate to the system, officials told press Friday.

“Later this month, we’ll return to the standard reporting deadline of three days from time of sale to submit the time-of-sale report,” an official said on the call. “These modified procedures are temporary as we process more [vehicle identification number] submissions and work with manufacturers to ensure the accuracy of their data submissions, and we anticipate a smooth process after this initial startup phase.”

In addition to the point-of-sale rebate, the tax credit, which tops out at $7,500, narrowed Jan. 1 to exclude certain vehicles associated with foreign entities of concern, including companies partially owned by China, Iran, Russia and North Korea. For a vehicle to be eligible for half of the possible $7,500 credit, the critical minerals in its battery must be at least 40 percent sourced from either the U.S. or parties to free-trade agreements with the U.S. That percentage will increase to 80 percent between now and 2027.

The Biden administration has set ambitious targets to expand the proliferation of electric vehicles in the U.S. while also working to reduce Chinese leverage in the electric vehicle and battery component supply chain.