Senator Bernie Moreno is a snitch

As a resident of the State of Ohio, I’m not only allowed to criticize my government, but I’m required to. I believe that speaking truth to power is the least that I can do, and I intend to do so right now.

As I reported recently, General Motors and Ford came up with a way to continue to offer the $7,500 EV tax incentive on lease vehicles by putting a payment down on the EVs in inventory, and then closing the sale when the customer comes in to buy. This meets the requirements set forth by the government to allow a vehicle to be put into service after September 30th, 2025.

Technically speaking, these automakers didn’t buy their own cars, as is being reported at some places, but it was a way to take advantage of the independent franchise dealership model to do something right for the customers.

Bernie Moreno, as a former owner of a Mercedes-Benz dealership (and credibly accused of wage theft), should understand the franchised dealership model well and applaud an effort to make it easier for dealerships to sell cars.

But Bernie Moreno isn’t that type of guy. You see, a man who won office by running a campaign almost exclusively focused on the “Trans Panic,” he decided that a car company using a system that he likely thinks of as “woke” to make cars more affordable for citizens was a bad idea, and made a big stink about it.

Today, General Motors is reportedly axing the lease program and will be funding a similar program through the end of this month (instead of the end of the year, like originally planned). It will not claim the lease credit.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand why he snitched. One, anything “woke” is persona non grata with the Trump Administration, and Moreno needs to make sure that he’s viewed as being extra special by the Commander in Chief.

Also, he is heavily invested in his son’s work, who is working on a new Mercedes-Benz dealership. He claims that he sold all of his businesses to avoid any conflicts of interest, but then decided that maybe he shouldn’t sell them all.

What I don’t understand is, General Motors is a massive global automaker with a well-staffed and well-funded legal team. I can’t possibly imagine that they tried to sneak this through without considering the legal ramifications of doing so.

What I can safely say is that a first-term senator doesn’t have as much political power as he’d like you to believe, and likely won’t even get that second term if elections keep going this way.

The lease strategy was clever and good for the automaker, the dealerships, and the customer. It’s not often that you have a win/win/win like that.

Regardless, long-term automakers are going to have to figure out how to price EVs competitively with the tax incentive. We’ve seen some aggressive moves already, and there will surely be more to come.

(The original version of this post first appeared at The Kirchner Report, our publisher’s newsletter covering the entire automotive industry. Please consider signing up, for free, today by clicking right here.)