IANAL (you are), but I believe 49 CFR § 583.4 (4 and 5) define it. But it can still be picked-apart.
I spent a billable hour (my $) with my lawyer today over a semi-colon, so I’m the wrong person to ask.
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So here’s the funny thing:
Final assembly point means the plant, factory, or other place, which is a building or series of buildings in close proximity, where a new passenger motor vehicle is produced or assembled from passenger motor vehicle equipment and from which such vehicle is delivered to a dealer or importer in such a condition that all component parts necessary to the mechanical operation of such automobile are included with such vehicle whether or not such component parts are permanently installed in or on such vehicle. For multi-stage vehicles, the final assembly point is the location where the first stage vehicle is assembled.
What about vehicles with stop sales that need chips to function and they are installed at the port in the US because of the shortage? That’s what people may argue…for now. Or, will manufacturers pull crap like that in the future to get more cars to qualify and to boost sales? Regulations will definitely be necessary to define and clarify this, as well as close loopholes.
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Dunno?
What if Kia/Hyundai finds a NA battery partner and sends cars built in SK without batteries to Canada or Mexico, and has the batteries installed there? Does the VIN code matter anymore?
This is basically LG/Samsung’s appliance business model: final assembly in Mexico to qualify under whatever NAFTA is called now.
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I would think youd meet the letter of the law if you shipped a non-running vehicle and then indepedently sourced the final part needed for port install. The shipping logistics of that sound painful though.
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Downside: cranes and tow trucks to move all those cars around. Impossible with 2019 volumes. Now? Dunno
Upside: a boat full of battery-less EVs won’t end up at the bottom of the ocean
A consumer could test this in theory, I think it would take an OEM with lots of lawyers and lobbyists to actually challenge. One of the companies slighted by this bill should give it a try.
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One could probably do it with something less of an installation nightmare than the hv battery though.
Hell, a 12v battery is an easy one to source domestically. You could literally install them on the boat and drive them off.
Personally my money is on being able to find various loopholes where virtually any EV can get the credit within a couple of years - .gov always talks big on sticking it to China, help the US,etc,etc but at the end of the day palms get greased and loopholes are found/created - the definition of “final assembly ” will just end up being the first of many
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Just got a call from a local BMW dealer for an iX that a customer backed out on, probably because the car has just lost the tax credit. They are offering it at MSRP and it is available for delivery today. With so many of them US-bound and now with no tax credit, I fully expect dealer discounts and manufacturer incentives on the i4 and iX in the near future. Just test drove the iX again at a BMW event yesterday and it is probably the best electric SUV in the market. It would have been a no-brainer if the price was closer to the X5 in my opinion…
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Between discount lacking (invoice for a personal order) and it being about $15,000 more to equip like we did the X5 45e it just wasn’t worth it to go iX when it came time to put the order in.
Ended up passing the reservation on to a client.
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Well that’s the catch. It’s so overpriced. It starts at 85, then you add leather and a couple things that people take for granted at that price range, and you’re over 90.
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A very interesting part I wasn’t aware of was the “Battery component foreign
entities of concern rule” that starts in 1/1/24. Foreign entity of concern includes China. Therefore if a single component in the battery pack is from China, it will not qualify(regardless of % of other components). There is a similar restriction for minerals starting 1/1/25, not a single mineral can be from a “foreign entity of concern”…aka China.
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China always used NAFTA as a backdoor into our market to avoid tariffs. What is stopping China from mining a mineral, having it processed in Australia on its way to US? The legislation portion on mineral minimums says “mined or processed”, it doesn’t say “mined and processed”.
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Interesting, i thought they were exploiting the Favored Nation status we granted in the 90s not the NAFTA
I think it’s Most Favored Nation lol, Australia and China are not in the best of terms now either.
Most favored by a certain contingent of elites, perhaps.
That one is much trickier, most of it is processed in China for all the reasons (labor, pollution, facilities)
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Considering a Pacifica PHEV Limited order for a pal, should be plenty of time to deliver before 12/31 for full rebate, but what is the fallback? It is assembled in Canada, so this means it gets reduced, or no rebate after 12/31?
Canada is in North America, so it satisfies the final assembly hurdle. What it gets in 2023 is all based on the battery pack and unknown currently, but being made in Canada is fine.
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So this pretty much means like most units, we await secretary guidance on battery content…
Yah. Right now it’s a crap shoot for everything.
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