{"id":397261,"date":"2026-07-14T00:18:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T00:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/397261\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T00:18:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T00:18:11","slug":"california-ev-incentive-gives-rivian-lucid-a-price-cap-edge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/397261\/","title":{"rendered":"California EV Incentive Gives Rivian, Lucid a Price-Cap Edge"},"content":{"rendered":"

California is launching a new incentive program for first-time electric vehicle buyers that gives companies like Rivian and Lucid<\/a> an edge.<\/p>\n

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill, SB 168, into law on Monday that will give first-time EV customers an instant incentive of $3,500 on a new vehicle and $1,750 toward a used one at the point of sale.<\/p>\n

The program, called MyFirstEV, is expected to launch this summer, though the state did not announce an exact start date. A spokesperson for the California Air Resources Board (CARB), which will administer the statewide program, told Business Insider that the agency expects to announce participating automakers next month.<\/p>\n

The bill has a price cap for EVs to qualify. New vehicles can’t have a manufacturer’s suggested retail price above $50,000, while used vehicles can’t sell for more than $25,000.<\/p>\n

However, the law exempts EV makers<\/a> headquartered in California that manufacture only zero-emission vehicles, allowing companies like Rivian and Lucid to participate in the incentive program regardless of vehicle prices. Rivian is headquartered in Irvine, while Lucid is based in Newark.<\/p>\n

Both companies sell vehicles priced well above the bill’s caps. Rivian’s R1T truck<\/a> has a starting price of under $80,000. Lucid primarily sells luxury EVs, with the Air sedan starting at around $71,000.<\/p>\n

A Lucid spokesperson told Business Insider that it intends to participate in the statewide program and that Lucid Air and Gravity vehicles will be eligible for California customers.<\/p>\n

“We see this as a meaningful opportunity to help make advanced electric vehicles more accessible to California buyers,” the spokesperson said, adding that the company “applauds the inclusion of the exemption.”<\/p>\n

Although Tesla manufactures the Model 3 and Model Y<\/a> at its Fremont factory and maintains an engineering headquarters in Palo Alto, it would be excluded from the exemption. The company moved its corporate headquarters from California to Austin in 2021.<\/p>\n

The CARB spokesperson confirmed that Lucid and Rivian could qualify for the exemption, while Tesla would be subject to the price caps.<\/p>\n

Tesla wouldn’t be entirely shut out of the incentive program. Lower-priced versions of the Model 3 and Model Y that fall below the $50,000 cap could qualify if the company chooses to participate.<\/p>\n

The CA governor’s office presented the program as a replacement for the federal EV tax credit program, which the Trump administration<\/a> rolled back. Under the now-defunct federal program, EV buyers could get up to $7,500 in incentives.<\/p>\n

“Donald Trump is doing everything in his power to pollute our air and surrender the clean car industry to China on a silver platter. California is putting its foot on the accelerator,” Newsom said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Spokespeople for Rivian and Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"California is launching a new incentive program for first-time electric vehicle buyers that gives companies like Rivian and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397262,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3653,10201,7,9,8,1804,34156,39316,3286,159593,41822,80494,159594,4576,39317,11758,1090],"class_list":["post-397261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-bill","tag-business-insider","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-company","tag-exemption","tag-lucid","tag-model","tag-new-incentive-program","tag-new-vehicle","tag-price-cap","tag-price-cap-edge","tag-program","tag-rivian","tag-spokesperson","tag-tesla"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}