A California clean-air program, designed to quickly electrify the state’s truck and bus fleets, has lately confronted intense criticism for reserving its largest-ever tranche of funding to subsidize Tesla’s all-electric semi-truck, a largely unproven automobile with a doubtful manufacturing timeline.
Prior to now yr, the California Air Sources Board (CARB) and its nonprofit associate CALSTART have put aside practically 1,000 vouchers, price not less than $165 million, to offer business fleets with steep markdowns on the long-delayed Tesla Semi, based on state information obtained by The Instances. The battery-powered huge rig has been marketed as a groundbreaking freight truck able to touring as much as 500 miles on a single cost.
However the information of Tesla’s windfall outraged some within the trucking business, who allege the state offered the world’s wealthiest automaker with preferential remedy for a automobile that isn’t prepared.
Almost eight years since Tesla Chief Government Elon Musk unveiled the Tesla Semi as an idea, it nonetheless isn’t extensively accessible in inventory. It has repeatedly confronted manufacturing delays and nonetheless doesn’t have a publicly marketed retail worth.
The truth is, some critics argue the Tesla Semi shouldn’t have certified for presidency funding in any respect. On the time Tesla submitted its voucher requests, the automobile didn’t seem to have the required certifications and approvals to be bought and legally pushed on California roads.
Nonetheless, the 992 state-administered incentives have successfully established the Tesla Semi because the front-runner within the electrified heavy-duty truck class.
“I don’t suppose it will be an overstatement to say that is market distortion or market manipulation,” mentioned Alexander Voets, normal supervisor at RIZON Truck USA, a business electrical truck model. “CARB basically single-handedly simply made Tesla the market chief for electrical autos for [heavy-duty trucks] with out them having [virtually] any autos in buyer arms.”
Historic funding, murky information
The funding was tentatively awarded by means of the Hybrid and Zero-Emission Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Mission (HVIP), a state program geared toward decreasing air pollution and greenhouse gasoline emissions within the goods-movement sector and in public transit. Since its creation in 2009, this system has devoted over $1.6 billion — a mixture of state funding and incentives from native ports — towards serving to fleets buy electrical, hydrogen and different low-emission autos.
The state program goals to unravel an outsize downside: Heavy-duty vehicles make up solely 10% of autos on U.S. roads, however they produce 45% of smog-forming nitrogen oxides and 58% of lung-aggravating soot.
However specialists say that the state program has lacked thorough oversight and accountability, permitting a small group of producers to use this system’s strong endowments.
Since The Instances started elevating questions on Tesla’s vouchers, the state’s public information for the HVIP have drastically modified, reflecting decrease funding quantities for Tesla and different main automakers. State officers had reserved the utmost quantity for which the automobile certified — a quantity a lot larger than the retail worth. In late January, officers revised the publicly accessible information in order that the numbers not included native port funding that was awarded by means of this system — making it seem that Tesla acquired tens of thousands and thousands much less in funding.
CARB officers additionally famous that EV incentives from native utilities — not administered by means of the state voucher program — helped subsidize the Tesla Semi orders and finally reduce grant funding awarded by the state.
An evaluation of earlier information by The Instances confirmed that Tesla might have been poised to obtain as much as $202 million, roughly a 3rd of all funding allotted throughout 2025 and 2026. The Tesla vouchers had every been price from $120,000 to $430,000 however now are listed between $84,000 and $351,000.
Even after the revisions, Tesla remains to be poised to obtain about $165 million, considerably greater than another single auto producer. New Flyer, a Canadian bus producer, secured the HVIP program’s second-highest funding, about $68 million, lower than half that of Tesla.
Although its retail worth has nonetheless not been publicly disclosed, state paperwork obtained by The Instances present that the Tesla Semi usually sells for round $260,000 for the usual mannequin with 300-mile vary and $300,000 for the long-range mannequin with 500-mile vary.
The worth has been one of many best promoting factors, as the typical value of a zero-emission huge rig was $435,000 in 2024, based on CARB.
The state voucher program presents as much as a 90% low cost on the record worth for personal fleet operators.
Tesla’s questionable {qualifications}
To qualify for a voucher, producers should get hold of a zero-emission powertrain certification displaying the automobile meets sure efficiency requirements. Every mannequin yr of the automobile additionally must obtain written approval from CARB, and the automobile should be listed within the HVIP catalog.
The 2024 Tesla Semi was listed as an eligible automobile by CARB, regardless of not having powertrain certification registered on CARB’s web site. No subsequent mannequin years have been displayed as eligible earlier than Tesla utilized for presidency incentives.
“I nonetheless haven’t seen any proof that Tesla has been in a position to fulfill the necessities,” mentioned a senior official at one other EV producer, who feared reprisal from state officers in the event that they spoke out publicly.
“That’s actually regarding to me, as a result of these are guidelines that I’ve to observe. So, how are they getting round this? And the way has CARB not caught this?”
Tesla didn’t reply to a number of requests for remark. CARB officers didn’t straight reply how Tesla secured state funding.
“The method for automobile or engine certification contains the overview and processing of confidential enterprise info, thus the certification standing of any truck is confidential,” a spokesperson mentioned in a press release to The Instances.
Nevertheless, CARB insisted that Tesla wouldn’t obtain any state-administered funding till necessities are met and autos are delivered to clients.
A WattEv Transport Inc. Tesla Semi electrical truck sits parked subsequent to BYD electrical vehicles by a charging station on the Port of Lengthy Seashore in April.
(Patrick T Fallon / AFP through Getty Photographs)
That gives little comfort to different producers.
Even when Tesla fails to ship the vehicles and doesn’t finally obtain authorities incentives, it prevents different automakers — with EVs in inventory — from using the funding extra instantly. Dropping out on these funding alternatives could possibly be crucial for some smaller EV corporations.
“That hurts the remainder of us,” mentioned Peter Tawil, director of gross sales and advertising and marketing at RIZON and longtime promoter for the EV business. “Our vehicles will be delivered tomorrow.”
“If this doesn’t get corrected, our complete business will simply go down the bathroom.”
A lifeline for EV makers
Tesla’s funding surge got here two years after state officers quietly eradicated the restrict of vouchers a single producer can safe at one time, a key guardrail meant to forestall main automakers from hoarding California’s clean-transportation funding and stalling the deployment of electrical autos.
Sometimes, auto dealerships safe buy orders from non-public or public fleet operators enthusiastic about shopping for their zero-emission autos on the decrease charges facilitated by the state incentives. Then, the dealerships submit voucher requests — for as much as 20 autos at a time for many companies — to acquire these incentives.
The state vouchers are awarded on a first-come, first-served foundation, creating stiff competitors for funding. Throughout the funding cycle that started on Sept. 9, for instance, there was about $335.6 million accessible. Inside two days, 68% of that quantity had already been allotted.
This system’s construction has enabled some corporations to shortly seize a big portion of funding, over 1,000 vouchers in some instances, with out having the stock or manufacturing capability to ship these autos in a well timed style. It additionally left their rivals unable to offer related reductions.
For years, a single producer usually was allowed to safe a most of solely 100 state vouchers at a time, till it delivered these orders to clients. That rule was designed to forestall any entity from monopolizing state funds for autos that weren’t prepared for manufacturing and to offer a degree enjoying area for smaller producers.
A CARB spokesperson acknowledged that the state program ended the 100-voucher restrict as a result of the coverage unintentionally prevented clients from shopping for a number of the hottest vehicles and buses available on the market. The state had additionally often granted waivers for purchasers to bypass the voucher restrict for common automobile manufacturers.
“The unique intent of the producer cap was to make sure [manufacturers] weren’t holding vouchers for an prolonged time,” a CARB spokesperson mentioned. “As a substitute, it had the unintended consequence of limiting zero-emission automobile selections for fleets.”
However, with out these limits, massive producers, together with Tesla, have been in a position to dominate the voucher program. The coverage change has intensified competitors within the state voucher program at a time when the EV market has entered its most unsure interval in current reminiscence.
The Trump administration has eradicated federal tax credit for EVs and invalidated California’s zero-emission automobile targets. In consequence, California is dropping traction in its quest to remove air pollution and greenhouse gases from the state’s strong transport sector.
The medium- and heavy-duty section, particularly, had already enormously consolidated as automakers have struggled to affect — and monetize — supply vans, buses and large rigs within the U.S.
California’s voucher program had offered electrical truck and bus producers with a lifeline. However Tesla’s growth into the heavy-duty market has grow to be a flash level, triggering requires reforms to how incentives are distributed.
Paragon or prototype?
Satirically, Tesla CEO and former DOGE chief Elon Musk had publicly advocated in opposition to authorities incentives for EVs, boasting that eliminating these subsidies would bolster Tesla’s standing within the business.
In the meantime, Tesla has labored to safe thousands and thousands in state and native funding for its Semi, whereas many within the trucking business query whether or not the automobile’s uneven growth timeline justifies such heavy public funding.
In November 2017, Musk unveiled the Tesla Semi prototype at a SpaceX facility in Hawthorne. He touted it as a revolutionary all-electric truck that may assist part out diesel-powered fashions and scale back emissions from the nation’s transport business. Musk mentioned it will ship 500-mile vary at most, a 0–60 mph acceleration in 20 seconds and 30-minute charging through solar-powered “Megachargers.”
Manufacturing was initially scheduled to start in 2019 in Tesla’s Gigafactory in Nevada.
However, since then, early clients, similar to meals and beverage large PepsiCo, have waited years for his or her orders to be fulfilled amid a sequence of producing delays.
It’s unclear what number of Tesla Semi fashions have been bought. In accordance with state information, Tesla has acquired cost from CARB’s voucher program for under 5 Semi fashions to this point, all of which have been delivered final July to Nevoya Transportation LLC.
State officers mentioned they anticipate lots of the Tesla orders will probably be fulfilled in late 2026, based mostly on conversations they’ve had with Tesla representatives.
However there are nonetheless severe questions on its efficiency and design.
Because the Tesla Semi was examined on the Port of Lengthy Seashore final yr, a serious design flaw grew to become obvious. The massive rig has a panoramic, wraparound windshield offering distinctive visibility and a futuristic look.
But it surely was clear that drivers have been unable to roll down the window to current the required paperwork on the gated entry.
For skeptics, it was yet one more signal the truck remains to be not prepared for the street.
