An excerpt from the CNet article: Germany's Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control said in a statement on Tuesday that approximately 800 Tesla Model S owners who purchased their vehicles before March 6 must pay back a €4,000 (about $4,650) EV subsidy. An additional 250 owners who purchased the car won't receive the subsidy at all. In an effort to spur sales of electrified vehicles including EVs and plug-in hybrids, the German government offers a €4,000 subsidy for qualifying vehicles. To prevent the subsidy from being a handout to the well heeled, Germany will only subsidize vehicles with a base price under €60,000 (about $70,000). It should be noted that the German government only contributes half of the overall subsidy, with the remaining coming from the automaker itself. The Model S has a base price low enough to qualify, but it was removed from the list of approved vehicles after the German government learned that the base model wasn't actually available in Germany. Both the government and Tesla tried to reach consensus on the issue, but the talks went nowhere. Full article: "Germany orders Tesla drivers to pay back EV subsidy"
The InsideEVs news article on this subject says that Tesla will cover the expense for those car owners who are being asked/ordered to pay back an incentive they have already received. See "Some Tesla Owners In Germany Are Being Told To Pay Back EV Incentive" Tesla is really building up some goodwill here!
