Comment Re:Still pretty affordable (Score 2) 393
The reason to give the subsidy is to encourage people to engage in behavior that would not be economically beneficial to them otherwise. I probably wouldn't buy a tesla for 45K because that makes no sense for me. I won't pay that for a car and the savings on fuel will not get me even close to the point where it makes sense. With a 10K subsidy it would be a lot closer to making economic sense for me to buy this car. Sure it might end up a bit more expensive over the life or the car, or it might even end up being a good deal. I am far more likely to buy the car with a subsidy and if it is determined that we want to encourage people to buy electric cars the subsidy might be necessary to get that to happen.
It is similar with solar panels... where I live if I had to pay for them in their entirety it probably wouldn't pay off, or it might break even (not taking into account the time and energy I put into getting them installed... break even really isn't compelling) but if we want people to install them then we need to make sure it is worth their while and subsidies is how we make that happen.