It seems to be common that the Alternative Vehicle Refueling Property Credit claimed on Form 8911 is often disallowed or calculated to be $0 without any explanation. There are two possible reasons for this. One, as you stated in your question you must have a high enough tax liability in order to claim the credit since it is non-refundable and is only used to reduce your tax liability. Or two, the tentative minimum tax calculation is causing it to be disallowed.
The tentative minimum tax is the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) which is calculated in parallel with the 'traditional' income tax calculation. When your return is complete, it will be determined whether you are required to be subject to AMT or not. Even though you may not be subject to AMT, if your tentative AMT tax is greater than your net regular tax, then the Form 8911 credit is disallowed.
If you can see your Form 8911, the amounts reported on lines 16 and 17 may explain why you are not eligible to claim the credit. If Line 17 (tentative minimum tax) is greater than line 16 (net regular tax), then the credit is disallowed regardless of whether you are subject to Alternative Minimum Tax or not.
This situation is outlined in the IRS Instructions for Form 8911 if you care to read more. This is the specific section to read -- Line 17.
Even though Form 8911 will not be included as part of your tax return because the credit is disallowed, you should be able to specify Form 8911 to be printed or previewed from the Print Center using TurboTax Online to take a look at the details or use Forms Mode to see it if you are using a CD/downloaded version of TurboTax.
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