This was my live panel session at Fully Charged LIVE North America 2020. Enjoy!
Transcript:
This session is going to be all about Tesla’s top 10 advantages that I believe Tesla can rely on to continue to thrive in 2020 and beyond even with no more tax credit.
First let me introduce myself, for those who don’t know me my name is Andy Slye. I’m a tech YouTuber and I’ve started creating a lot of Tesla videos since getting my Model 3. Best purchase I’ve ever made. My videos became pretty popular which led to me becoming the world’s top Tesla referrer with over 1,000 referrals so far which is incredible and still hard for me to believe. I love talking about Tesla and my Model 3 so that’s why I’m here today.
For those who don’t know about the federal EV tax credit here in the US I’ll briefly explain it. I’m not going to get into the gritty details, but basically someone who purchases a qualifying electric vehicle can potentially get a federal tax credit of up to $7500. It applies to all car manufacturers. However, once a car manufacturer sells their 200,000th electric vehicle then the tax credit begins phasing out for that manufacturer little by little each quarter until it’s completely gone. And guess whose tax credit completely ran out at the end of 2019? Tesla! So beginning January 1st 2020 Tesla no longer has the advantage of the tax credit when selling their vehicles in the US.
As a YouTuber who does Tesla videos you can imagine all the lovely comments I get on my videos. Tesla is a very hot topic and some people love Tesla and some people despise Tesla. And I’ve gotten many comments from Tesla haters over the years saying “Tesla is only surviving because of the tax payers and government subsidies. When Tesla’s tax credit runs out they will fail”
I hope you don’t take this as I only want Tesla to win. I love competition. I root for Tesla’s competition because it makes everyone better and it always benefits us, the consumer. For example, Rivian is here and I love what they’re doing, and I hope they succeed. I recently did a YouTube video showcasing Openpilot which is basically an open source competitor to Tesla’s Autopilot. But, having been a Tesla owner for almost 2 years I’ve grown to appreciate what makes their products so great and what makes them great as a brand.