With the federal $7,500 tax credit gone, California has started paying its own way. The state’s MyFirstEV programme is now under way, and the California Air Resources Board has published the detail that buyers actually need.
The headline numbers
- $3,500 off a new electric vehicle, applied up front at the point of sale
- $1,750 off a used electric vehicle
- New cars must carry an MSRP of $50,000 or less; used cars must be $25,000 or less
- Reserved for first-time EV buyers, who sign an attestation that they have not owned one before
- Hydrogen fuel-cell cars qualify. Plug-in hybrids do not
The price cap is softer than it looks
CARB has confirmed that the $50,000 ceiling is judged on the base trim’s MSRP. That means a well-optioned, higher-trim car can sail past $50,000 and still qualify, provided the entry version of that model sits underneath the cap. It also means manufacturers, not buyers, decide which trims they actually put into the programme, so a car being under the cap is no guarantee a dealer can discount it.
Two companies sit outside the cap entirely. Lucid and Rivian are exempt because they are headquartered in California, and since every product they currently sell starts above $50,000, the exemption is the only reason their buyers see any benefit at all.
Used cars: narrower than you would expect
The secondhand rules are restrictive. A used vehicle must be at least two model years older than the year of purchase, so at the moment that means 2024 and earlier. More significantly, the rebate only applies to certified pre-owned cars sold through franchised dealerships. Independent lots and EV specialist retailers are excluded.
Who is participating, and when
The state and the manufacturers split the cost of every rebate. CARB has published a rolling onboarding schedule: Chevrolet, Ford, Hyundai, Kia, Lucid and Tesla from August 2026; Honda, Lexus, Subaru and Toyota from September; Mitsubishi from November. Nissan, Rivian and Volvo are listed as coming soon.
Move quickly
The pot is $135.5 million from the state, matched by participating manufacturers, and California estimates it could support more than 73,000 clean vehicle sales. Crucially the funding is split equally between participating brands, so no single dominant seller can drain it, but individual manufacturers can and will run dry at different times. Tesla’s own site has already indicated that around half of its allocation remains.
Sources: InsideEVs, California Air Resources Board bulletin
