Hyundai offers US$7,500 cash bonus for EVs to match US tax credits

Hyundai Motor will give as much as US$7,500 in cash bonuses for electric vehicle (EV) buyers in the US, seeking to keep its cars competitive with carmakers qualifying for tax credits under President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

The discounts apply to the Ioniq 5, Ioniq 6 and Kona Electric models; and the month-long incentive will last till Jan 31, the South Korean carmaker said on its website. Hyundai’s EVs could not meet the requirements under the clean vehicle tax credit programme, which aims to encourage domestic production of EVs and components. 

Without any operational EV factory in the US, Hyundai is building an EV plant in Georgia that could start assembly as soon as the end of 2024. Hyundai and affiliate Kia sold a total of 69,259 battery-powered vehicles in US in 2023, the second-biggest EV maker behind Tesla, indicated BloombergNEF data.

Few vehicles are eligible for the credits, however, and the list of qualifying car models may shrink further due to tough rules pushing carmakers to reduce their reliance on Chinese suppliers for parts.

The Biden administration is looking to revive American industry while tilting the economy away from fossil fuels. The IRA also intersects with a separate national security objective: to free the US and its allies, as much as possible, from dependence on supply chains it sees as vulnerable to China. Bloomberg