Notice 2009-89: Section 30D Plug-In Electric Vehicle Credit

IRS Notice 2009-89 was interim guidance the IRS issued in late 2009 to create a temporary certification process for the plug-in electric vehicle credit under Internal Revenue Code Section 30D after the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act rewrote that credit. It gave manufacturers a way to certify that their vehicles qualified, and it let buyers claim the credit on their returns while the Treasury Department worked on permanent rules.¹

The Gap the Notice Filled

ARRA overhauled Section 30D and applied the revised credit to qualifying four-wheeled vehicles acquired after December 31, 2009. The statute required manufacturers to report specific vehicle data to the IRS, but the agency had not yet built the reporting infrastructure to receive it. Notice 2009-89 was the stopgap. It laid out what a manufacturer had to submit, how the IRS would respond, and how taxpayers could rely on that submission before formal regulations existed.

What Manufacturers Had to Certify

Under the notice, a manufacturer, or the domestic distributor of a foreign manufacturer, had to certify two things for each make, model, and model year: that the vehicle met the statutory requirements of Section 30D, and the specific credit amount the vehicle qualified for based on its battery capacity.¹

The certification package had to include the vehicle’s gross vehicle weight rating, total battery capacity in kilowatt-hours, confirmation that the battery could be recharged from an external source, and the dollar amount of the allowable credit. Once the IRS reviewed the submission, it issued an acknowledgment letter to the manufacturer confirming the vehicle was on the approved list for credit purposes.

How Buyers Claimed the Credit

Buyers did not have to wait for the acknowledgment letter. Under the notice’s temporary rules, a taxpayer could rely on the manufacturer’s certification of qualification and credit amount even if the IRS had not yet sent its formal reply.¹

To claim the credit, taxpayers used Form 8936, entering the year, make, model, and certified credit amount that came from the manufacturer’s data. The vehicle also had to meet several personal conditions: it had to be placed in service during the tax year, original use had to begin with the taxpayer, it could not be purchased for resale, and it had to be used primarily in the United States. For leased vehicles, only the lessor could claim the credit, not the lessee.²

How Long the Notice Stayed in Effect

The IRS said the guidance was temporary. It expected future regulations to incorporate the notice’s rules, and the notice would remain in effect until those regulations were finalized.¹

The permanent certification framework was built out through later administrative guidance, and the interim process was eventually superseded. Related pieces of the credit produced their own guidance over the years; IRS Notice 2018-96, for example, addressed how the 200,000-vehicle manufacturer phase-out worked as specific automakers hit the sales threshold. The notice itself covered a narrow window between ARRA’s enactment in early 2009 and the IRS’s rollout of a formal, ongoing reporting process for manufacturers.

Where the Section 30D Credit Stands Now

The credit that Notice 2009-89 helped administer has since been ended. Public Law 119-21, signed on July 4, 2025, terminated the Section 30D clean vehicle credit along with the Section 25E used clean vehicle credit. Neither is available for any vehicle acquired after September 30, 2025.³

A narrow transition rule remains. If you had a written binding contract in place and made a payment on or before September 30, 2025, you can still claim the credit when you take possession of the vehicle, even if delivery happens after that date.³ Outside that transition, no federal credit is available for new or used clean vehicles purchased after that date.⁴

1
Internal Revenue Service. IRS Notice 2009-89 – New Qualified Plug-in Electric Drive Motor Vehicle Credit
2
Internal Revenue Service. Form 8936 Instructions for Qualified Plug-in Electric Drive Motor Vehicle Credit
3
Internal Revenue Service. FAQs for Modification of Sections 25C, 25D, 25E, 30C, 30D, 45L, 45W, and 179D Under Public Law 119-21
4
Internal Revenue Service. Clean Vehicle Tax Credits