Tesla Burned Through Its California EV Rebate Funds In Just Five Days

California launched a new EV credit to help spur demand. Tesla used up its share of the cash within a week.

Photo by: Kevin Williams/InsideEVs

Suvrat Kothari

By: Suvrat Kothari

Aug 10, at 1:43pm ET

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California's MyFirstEV rebate program appears to have had a hot start, thanks to Tesla.
The program allocated $135.5 million in EV purchase or lease incentives, which automakers agreed to match.
Buyers have already gobbled up Tesla's share of the incentives.

Tesla has already run through its share of incentives under California’s latest MyFirstEV rebate program, just days after the rebates became available. In what’s supposed to be an year of EV demand reset in the U.S. due to the Trump administration’s unfavorable policies, it's a rare showcase of robust demand, even though California has historically led the country in EV adoption.

The state created a one-time $135.5 million fund for the program, which automakers are matching dollar-for-dollar, to lower the upfront cost of EVs for first-time buyers. The program is designed to partially offset the $7,500 federal EV tax credit, which expired last year.

Under the new California rebate program, first-time EV buyers are eligible for up to $3,500 toward a new EV and $1,750 toward a used one. Half the money comes from the state, with automakers covering the other half of the incentive. New EVs must have a purchase price of $50,000 or less, while used models are capped at $25,000. California-based automakers such as Lucid and Rivian are exempt from the price caps on new EVs because they are headquartered in the state.

As Tesla investor and commentator Sawyer Merritt pointed out in a post on X, Tesla began offering the rebates on August 3. Within three days, 50% of the funds available through the program had been claimed, according to the automaker. By August 8—just five days after the rebates became available—Tesla had exhausted its entire allocation.

Tesla doesn't respond to media requests for comment. InsideEVs reached out to the California Air Resources Board (CARB) for more details but didn't hear back by the time of publication.

We don’t know exactly how much money was allocated to Tesla, but some back-of-the-napkin math gives us a reasonable estimate.

InsideEVs learned last week from CARB that the $135.5 million state fund would be split equally among participating automakers. CARB said about 15 automakers are participating, which works out to roughly $9 million per automaker. Because the automakers have agreed to match the state’s incentives, Tesla appears to have helped its customers claim roughly $18 million in combined rebates in just five days. Again, that’s not an official sum, but a potential estimate.

In other words, Tesla buyers who moved quickly got a pretty reasonable discount. Those who waited missed the boat.

If you didn’t get a chance to grab the Tesla incentives, other automakers haven’t run out of funds just yet. Hyundai, Genesis and Lucid currently have rebates available. Toyota, Subaru, Lexus and Honda are scheduled to begin offering them in September, according to CARB. Ford, Chevy and Kia plan to roll them out sometime this month, while Nissan and Rivian are listed as “coming soon.”

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The available funds are relatively small compared with the former $7,500 federal tax credit, so they may not stick around for long. If you’re shopping for an EV and qualify for the California rebate, you might want to act quick before the rebates disappear.

Contact the author: suvrat.kothari@insideevs.com