In the eyes of the law, the Cadillac Lyrics is not an SUV. Normally this wouldn’t matter; Given its two-box shape, ample seating for five more cargo space, seven-inch ground clearance and 5,600-pound curb weight, we know it’s an SUV. , even if it is not classified as such. Yet semantics prevent the most important Cadillac in decades from being eligible for the full $7,500 electric vehicle tax credit. And General Motors is asking the US Treasury to do something about it.
As you may already know, the new EV credit scheme states that only passenger cars costing less than $55,000 are eligible for rebates, while that cap is increased to $80,000 for SUVs, vans and trucks. The Lyriq starts at $62,990 including destination, but since it’s not technically an SUV for the obsolete government definitionit is too expensive to qualify, because Reuters reported Friday. You can imagine that GM is not happy with this result, which is precisely why the company has been pestering the Treasury to change its criteria with a little common sense:
“We are addressing these concerns with the Treasury and hope the upcoming guidance on vehicle classifications will provide needed clarity for consumers and dealers, as well as regulators and manufacturers,” GM told Reuters on Friday.
US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told CES on Friday night that her agency was working on the tax classification issue with the Treasury.
We work very closely together. Our people and their people talk all the time,” Granholm told Automotive News after his CES speech. “Our political office must work directly with the Treasury to ensure that these guidelines are published and that they are informed by stakeholders.”
Of course, GM isn’t the only electric vehicle maker to deal with this. Some versions of Tesla Model Y, Volkswagen ID.4 and Ford Mustang Mach-E They also fall away from SUV design because they have too few seats, or weigh too little (less than 6,000 pounds), or are only front-wheel drive. The Lyriq lacks on all of these fronts, even though it rides nearly 1.5 inches taller than the Mach-E, is nearly a foot longer and four inches wider. All-wheel-drive, twin-motor Lyriq examples are slated to begin deliveries later this year, but those don’t pass the arcane SUV sniff test either.
There is something painfully ironic about the fact that some zero-emission vehicles are spared eligibility for the reduction, specifically because they are not heavy or inefficient. quite. Limiting eligible vehicles based on MSRP makes a lot of sense; No one buys a $120,000 lucid look needs a $7,500 break. But excluding particular crossovers based on arbitrary and antiquated criteria serves no purpose, when these are ultimately the cars that the vast majority of people buy. As you might expect, the Treasury doesn’t quite see it that way:
A Treasury spokesperson defended the ratings, saying the agency used fuel economy standards “which are pre-existing – and long-standing – EPA regulations that manufacturers are very familiar with. These standards offer clear criteria to delineate cars and SUVs.
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The fact the regulations have been “longstanding” hurts the Treasury’s argument if anything, considering they were drawn up decades before automakers ever seriously considered selling cars without internal-combustion engines to the public. Given that, it’s hard to imagine the EPA ever ratifying sweeping changes to its classifications; an exception might be the best GM can hold out for.
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