The Senate’s Democrats have gotten rid of a $4,500 bonus tax credit for EVs made with domestic union labor that was opposed by Senator Joe Manchin as they seek to wrap up spending deal negotiations. When asked about it, Joe Manchin simply stated “It’s gone.”

The House passed the Build Back Better legislation last year. It would have increased the $7,500 consumer tax credit to as much as $12,500 as part of an effort to ensure that EVs are “manufactured by workers with good jobs.”

Joe Britton, the head of the Zero Emission Transportation Association, stated that at this point everybody is just left with a base credit. Many have shifted the conversation to lifting the 200,000 vehicle-per-manufacturer caps on the credit.

However, with all this negotiation going on, Joe Manchin has criticized the EV tax credit endlessly. He has called it “ludicrous” and has complained it would subsidize a product for which there was a waiting list. Joe also said that hydrogen vehicles should be incentivized instead of electric.

Joe Manchin has been looking to implement more enforced limits on the cost of eligible vehicles as well as more defined guidelines and limits on the income of those allowed to apply for the tax credit. The debate is currently in the air surrounding the credit’s size and scope, but in recent weeks, Joe Manchin has said he doesn’t approve of the existing tax credit structure. His main reasoning is that United States-based companies have run out of credits or will soon run out of them and foreign companies will continue to be subsidized.

“Any foreign vehicle that is an electric vehicle is going to be able to claim a $7,500 credit” under existing law, Manchin said. “I don’t think that’s our intent.”