New EV tax credit rules mean cars with Chinese materials won’t qualify – but there’s a catch

New rules from the Treasury Department will make it harder for vehicles to qualify for the full federal electric vehicle tax credit of $7,500, though automakers were also granted a reprieve. Currently, the Inflation Reduction Act's (IRA) federal EV credit requires that manufacturers ramp up sourcing of battery “critical materials” such as nickel and cobalt from the US and its trade partners and ensure that battery components are increasingly built in North America. In addition to thresholds that increase over time for critical minerals, late last week Treasury released new rules mandating that manufacturers not use critical materials that originate…