Electric Car Rebates and Incentives Being Offered By California

California is taking the lead in the push to get consumers to buy and drive more environmentally friendly vehicles. They are offering numerous incentives to consumers to go out and purchase electric vehicles including generous rebates. Along with the tax rebate of $7,500 from the government to owners of low-emissions vehicles the state of California is offering an added rebate of $3,000 to $5,000 more; or $20,000 to buyers of low-emission commercial vehicles. Their goal is to have 7,500 all-electric and 25,000 plug-in hybrids on its roads by 2014 with an increase to 60,000 electrics and 85,000 plug-in hybrids by 2017.

In order to reach this goal and persuade buyers to purchase these new concept vehicles they plan on putting $200 million a year through 2015 into low-emission vehicles. They are going to be subsidizing charging stations that should be in operation by 2012. They’re intention is to ease the consumers biggest concern about electric cars- will I run out of power before I reach a place to recharge the batteries? With a range of only about 100 miles in most electric cars this is a very real concern for consumers. Major shopping centers or malls, movie theaters, hotels and restaurants are being considered as great locations for charge stations. The stations need to be in places where people are willing to spend a few hours waiting for their vehicle to recharge. New charging stations are being designed to give 220- to 240-volt electricity which will charge cars in about two to four hours, half the time needed with standard 110-volt current. Once businesses learn that they can give away a few dollars worth of electricity to capture consumers for a few hours they become very interested in installing charge stations in their parking lots.

With electric cars becoming more mainstream added incentives are great ways to get consumers to purchase these low-emission vehicles. About two dozen car companies are coming up with ideas and new models of electric cars. The Nissan Leaf coming out sometime at the end of this year is a pure electric car with a driving range of about 100 miles. The Chevy Volt is another type of electric car known as a plug-in hybrid. This vehicle runs on electric battery until it runs out of power, then the gas engine turns on. Currently the only mass-produced electric car is the Tesla sports car which came out a few years ago, and has produced over 1,500 vehicles. However, at a price tag of over $100,000 this car is not for the everyday driver. The new electric cars to hit the market will carry a much lower base sticker price.

The question remains though, are consumers ready for electric cars? With California’s incentive rebates along with the governments rebates these cars won’t cost more than a standard gas powered car; but will the limited range of the vehicle deter potential buyers? And what about the rest of the country, California is known for its push to be environmentally friendly, but is the rest of country as concerned? We’ll just have to wait and see what happens.