Tesla burns through its California EV rebate in five days

This article was published on August 11, 2026 The state waived its $50,000 price cap for California-headquartered EV makers, which helps Rivian and Lucid and not Tesla, and buyers cleared the money anyway Tesla exhausted its share of California’s MyFirstEV rebate between August 3 and August 8. The $50,000 price cap is waived for California-headquartered EV-only makers like Rivian and Lucid, but not Tesla. Tesla used up its entire allocation of California’s new first-time buyer rebate in five days. The MyFirstEV scheme opened this month, and Tesla started offering the discount on August 3. Its share was gone by August 8, a spokesperson for the California Air Resources Board confirmed to InsideEVs. The money is not one central pot. California put $135.5mn in and split it between participating carmakers, each of which agreed to match the state dollar for dollar, taking the total to roughly $271mn. That works out at about $9mn of public money per manufacturer, or $18mn once the match is counted, and InsideEVs estimates Tesla buyers claimed close to the full amount. Buyers get $3,500 off a qualifying new EV or $1,750 on a used one. New cars must carry a base price of $50,000 or less, us