EV tax credit details, automakers’ CAFE credit glut, hybrid thefts: Today’s Car News

Automakers aren’t doing all they can to raise mpg, according to a new EPA report. Hybrids are hot for car thieves right now. Tesla owners quibble over an outage. And will the EV tax credit include that union-made bonus? This and more, here at Green Car Reports. 

The House version of the Build Back Better Act passed last week includes a tax credit for used EVs, a new dividing line at 40 kwh, and the even more controversial union-made bonus. You can bet the latter two will be discussed when it gets hashed out in the Senate starting this week.

Catalytic converters are the reason why hybrids have become top targets for thieves. Specifically, it’s the precious metals in them, and the 2004-2009 Prius is among the models with the highest-value component. 

The EPA’s annual report on emissions and fuel economy underscores that automakers aren’t using all the tools they have to lower fuel economy as much as they could. Why? They’re sitting on a glut of credits that make complying arguably too easy.

And an outage of Tesla’s network on Friday rendered some owners unable to access their vehicles via Phone Key—and allegedly, in some instances, to get into them at all. Whether this was user error or not, we took a look why a phone-based key (plus a backup on the ready) is looking like the future.

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