Lyra Martin Auto 07.29.2022 20:Jul PM EDT

Newly Introduced Inflation Reduction Act Gives $40,000 Incentive to Electric Trucks like Tesla Semi

Legislators have announced a new bill that rewards purchases for clean commercial vehicles that reaches their weight requirement with up to $40,000 in incentives.

A Proposed Law Offers Incentives for Purchases of Electric Trucks

This week, lawmakers announced the "Inflation Reduction Act of 2022," a prospective EV tax credit arrangement. Most Americans are focused on the bill's promise to transfer the EV tax credit to a genuine at-the-time-of-purchase incentive, but specific clauses also incentivize business EV purchasers with incentives up to $40,000. This would benefit electric trucks such as Tesla Semi or Lion Electric's trucks.

The bill would restore access to the incentive for Tesla and GM EV purchasers. There are several more restrictions as well, which should keep things interesting if the bill is passed into law. However, consumer electric cars are not included in the bill's other sections that deal with electric vehicles.

For instance, the "commercial clean vehicles" component is planned to include electric trucks. It provides incentives of up to $40,000 for clean commercial cars weighing more than 14,000 pounds.

Tesla's 300-mile Semi will cost $150,000, and the 500-mile version $180,000, and the incentives would reduce costs by 27%. The tax incentive will not just help Tesla but also buyers from Volvo, Daimler, Nikola, and others will also benefit.

If the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 is passed, a $40,000 incentive would reduce the price to $110,000 and increase the cost per mile's competitiveness. However, there are also several incentives for commercial electric vehicles at the state level in the US, for example, in California.

This incentive, however, primarily increases demand, which was never an issue for electric vehicles like the Tesla Semi, which has a backlog of thousands of reservations.

As each class of electric semi truck would need five to ten times more battery cells than the typical electric vehicle, the biggest challenge for electric trucks right now is scaling up manufacturing, both of the actual electric tractors and the batteries required to make them.

Here's What You Should Know About Tesla's Electric Semi Truck

Elon Musk introduced the Tesla Electric Semi prototypes in 2017 and said they would be produced in 2019. To go to the stage, the CEO of the EV automaker sat shotgun in a Tesla Semi. Also shown was a smaller electric truck prototype.

Musk said the Tesla Semi could go from 0 to 60 mph in 5 seconds, but it takes 20 seconds when fully loaded. The Tesla Semi's acceleration speed is similar to that of the Volvo Iron Knight, the world's fastest commercial diesel truck in 2016.

Its speed comes from aerodynamics and electric motors. "We made the Tesla vehicle like a bullet," Elon Musk said. Compared to the Bugatti Chiron, which has a 0.38 drag coefficient, Tesla Semi's drag coefficient is 0.36. He said that the Tesla Semi has four motors on each rear tire.

The Tesla Semi will have a 500-mile range when fully loaded, according to the CEO. However, in his interview with Electrek, he said that its maximum range would be 620 miles. This would therefore have the most extended EV range in the world.

The Tesla Semi's great range will be made possible by 4680 cells, which may boost the capacity by up to 16% compared to the 2170 cells used in most Tesla cars today. In 2017, the firm also launched a variant of the Semi with a 300-mile maximum range. It claims its Megacharger network at truck stops around the US will provide 400 miles of range in 30 minutes.