incentives
-
The electric-car market may be in for a serious downturn when current federal tax incentives end, assuming the Trump administration declines to extend them, according to a new analysis. In 2010, the government began offering tax credits of $2,500 to $7,500 to the first 200,000 U.S. buyers of plug-in electric vehicles from each automaker. Those credits are on their way to drying up, with companies like General Motors, Nissan, and Tesla likely to run out during 2018 or 2019. DON’T MISS: Georgia Electric-Car Sales Plummet After Incentive Replaced By Tax As Edmunds points out in its...
-
Why electric bikes may deserve purchase incentives too
If plug-in electric cars and trucks receive purchase incentives from national and state governments, what about electric bicycles? That's just what a recent report from the European Cyclists Federation suggests. It recommends directing purchase incentives and infrastructure subsidies towards...
Green Car Reports -
Hong Kong closed a tax loophole; is Tesla ancillary damage?
Government officials in Hong Kong have eliminated a popular tax exemption that made electric vehicles much cheaper to buy than comparable gasoline-powered models. Now Tesla worries it could take the brunt of the blowback. The loophole helped make Hong Kong one of the biggest overseas markets for...
Green Car Reports -
NY $2,000 electric-car rebate falls to $500 if it's over $60K; sorry, Tesla
New York State is known for a lack of transparency, backroom dealings, and little public input into the deliberations that lead to legislation produced by its state legislature. So it wasn't too surprising that after Governor Andrew Cuomo announced an electric-car incentive program in April 2016...
John Voelcker -
How to pay most of a million bucks to use the carpool lane in Florida
Some people will do anything to avoid a little traffic. Like many other states, Florida offers drivers of greener cars solo access to its high-occupancy vehicle lanes, also known as carpool lanes. That privilege is extended to hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and battery-electric cars. DON'T MISS: Porsche...
Stephen Edelstein -
Nevada treasurer, Faraday's nemesis, turns eye toward Tesla tax-credit transfer
The state of Nevada has been fairly generous to startup electric-car makers that pledge to establish manufacturing operations within its borders. After offering a generous incentive package several years ago, the Silver State landed Tesla's lithium-ion battery "Gigafactory," which is now up and...
Stephen Edelstein -
Eight weeks ago, China seemed to be preparing to loosen its famously strict car-manufacturing rules for foreign makers. The government leaders who direct economic policy had seemingly concluded that Chinese makers could not succeed in selling cars in Europe and North America. So the country proposed to relax joint-venture rules for so-called New Energy Vehicles, to get Chinese manufacturers more competitive in electric cars. DON'T MISS: China to loosen electric-car rules for foreign makers, because they didn't work (Jan 2017) Now, however, the indications have turned murkier. According to...
-
New York state electric-car rebate program to launch this month
New York state has finally issued details on its effort to step up its efforts to promote electric cars. The Empire State is one of eight so-called "ZEV states" that have adopted California emissions standards. But New York does not mandate automakers to sell zero-emission vehicles within its...
Stephen Edelstein -
Biofuel, fossil-fuel lobbyists join to fight electric-car incentives
As the old saying goes: the enemy of my enemy is my friend. The biofuel and fossil-fuel lobbies have argued in the past over the blending of biofuels with the general fuel supply. But now the two groups have found something they can agree on. DON'T MISS: Sierra Club to sue EPA over failure to...
Stephen Edelstein -
Ontario, BC update electric-car incentives for Canadian buyers
Two Canadian provinces are now offering more generous incentives to electric-car buyers. Ontario is eliminating certain price caps in its electric-car incentive program, while a British Columbia not-for-profit is boosting its "cash-for-clunkers"-style program. Ontario announced its updated...
Stephen Edelstein -
Hawaii, utility offer $10,000 Nissan Leaf rebate; hope for carbon-free transport
Islands can be excellent places to promote clean energy. Because they are typically disconnected from both mainland grid infrastructure and sources of fossil fuels, it is easier for alternative sources of energy to gain a foothold. In fact, the cost of importing coal or oil to fuel power plants or...
Stephen Edelstein -
South Korea to extend electric-car subsidy to long-range vehicles too
South Korea may scrap a rule that limits electric-car subsidies based on charging times.
Stephen Edelstein -
China plans to tighten regulations related to its electric-car subsidies.
-
Electric-car group buying programs spread into new states
New states are enacting electric-car group buying programs.
Stephen Edelstein -
Reminder: buy that electric-car charging station (or electric motorcycle) this month!
With any new presidential administration comes a certain degree of legislative uncertainty. Conflicting statements on many issues by president-elect Donald Trump have produced more questions than usual about what policies he and his administration may pursue. But for present and future electric-car...
John Voelcker -
Which type of Green Car Reports articles are least valuable? Poll results
Last week, we wrote about the results of a Twitter poll we put up to get a feel for what our readers like best about the site. The flipside of "most valuable" is "least valuable," so we put up the same list of choices again, this time asking survey respondents to rank their least favorite types of...
John Voelcker -
Which Green Car Reports articles are most valuable? Poll results
We've now been running a series of Twitter polls for several weeks, and last week we decided to use one poll for a different purpose. We wanted to survey our audience, which we haven't done in any large-scale or systematic way. A Twitter poll isn't particularly scientific, but like reading the...
John Voelcker -
China decides maybe hybrids could help its emissions too
China may soon incentivize hybrids alongside plug-in cars.
Stephen Edelstein -
California removed its limit on "green stickers" that grant carpool-lane access to plug-in hybrids.
-
How low do prices for 200-mile electric cars have to go for success? Poll results
One of the challenges of making and selling electric cars is that their batteries are still expensive. And despite some makers' absorbing losses on the earliest cars, that means they sell for prices higher than those of similarly sized vehicles with combustion engines. Sure, owners will save money...
John Voelcker -
CA plug-in carpool-lane access bill up for vote; here's why some oppose it
Several months ago, the allocated supply of "green stickers" that give buyers of new plug-in hybrid cars access to California carpool lanes expired. So you think that a pending bill in the California state legislature to expand that supply would get the support of plug-in electric car advocates...
John Voelcker -
Ending $4 billion U.S. oil, gas drilling subsidies would have low impact: study
U.S. subsidies to the oil and gas industries are often a flashpoint among electric-car advocates and environmentalists. They see a conflict in the government providing billions of dollars in incentives for drilling while simultaneously attempting to lower consumption of carbon-emitting energy...
John Voelcker -
2016 Nissan Leaf group buy in Montreal signs up 2,800 for low price on electric car
Group purchases of cars and other goods, as a way of driving down the price, are common in other countries—think China—but rare in North America. But over the last two years, they've emerged as a way for electric-car advocates to accomplish several goals at once. Buyers both get better...
John Voelcker -
Faraday Future vs Nevada treasurer: electric cars vs taxpayer protection
Self-made millionaires often possess an innate belief that they can create products and companies where none existed before. But with companies come factories, and with factories come tax breaks, and with tax breaks come inconvenient questions from government officials. Which is how Faraday Future...
John Voelcker