IRC Sec. 30D
Form 8936 (Qualified Plug-in Electric Drive Motor Vehicle Credit)
Internal Revenue Code Section 30D provides a credit for Qualified Plug-in Electric Drive Motor
Vehicles including passenger vehicles and light trucks.
• Maximum credit is $7,500
• Nonrefundable personal tax credit
• The credit begins to phase out after 200,000 vehicles are sold
• Golf carts do not qualify
• Can be used to offset both regular tax and AMT
• Not available to offset the 3.8% net investment income tax
• Not phased out for high income taxpayers
• No formal election is required if taxpayers choose not to claim it
• Purchasers may rely on the manufacturer’s certification of a vehicle and the amount of
the credit allowable with respect to that vehicle
• Credit is recaptured if the vehicle ceases to be eligible for the credit
Motor vehicle
– any vehicle which is manufactured primarily for use on public streets, roads, and
highways (not including a vehicle operated exclusively on a rail or rails) and which has at
least 4 wheels.
New qualified plug-in electric drive motor vehicle
– the original use of which commences with the taxpayer,
– which is acquired for use or lease to others by the taxpayer and not for resale,
– which is made by a manufacturer,
– which is treated as a motor vehicle for purposes of title II of the Clean Air Act,
– which has a gross vehicle weight rating of less than 14,000 pounds, and
– which is propelled to a significant extent by an electric motor which draws electricity from
a battery which—has a capacity of not less than 4 kilowatt hours, and
– is capable of being recharged from an external source of electricity.

Battery capacity
– with respect to any battery, the quantity of electricity which the battery is capable of
storing, expressed in kilowatt hours, as measured from a 100 percent state of charge to
a 0 percent state of charge.

Written by: Rimma Tinel – Davidson & Nick CPA Accountant