Tesla buyers in Germany can go for subsidies again as a government agency has ended its dispute with the electric automaker concerning if its Model S was too costly to qualify for the incentives scheme.
An independent assessment proved that a base version of the Model S was available below 60,000 euros ($74,000) baseline and the vehicles are thus eligible, the German Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Controls (BAFA) informed Reuters.
Germany in 2016 released the incentive scheme worth about 1 billion euros and partly funded by the German car industry to increase electric car usage but it consists a baseline to exempt premium models.
BAFA unexpectedly removed Tesla’s vehicles from the list in December, adding that customers could not order the Model S base version without additional features that pushed the vehicle over the price limit.
Tesla rejected at the time that the no-frills version was not available and stated on Thursday a model was always available below the cut-off price.
BAFA stated it was nonetheless evaluating previously approved applications for subsidies, which could indicate that buyers may be asked to pay subsidies again they have already received.
BAFA has received about 1,275 applications for subsidies of Tesla purchases, as per its website. It was not immediately clear how many of those were authorized prior the agency’s removal of Tesla from its list in December.
According to the subsidy scheme, buyers get 4,000 euros off their all-electric vehicle deal and 3,000 euros off plug-in hybrids.
