Federal and State Incentives for Plug-Ins, EV's

Bear in mind that our governator pushed to have this credit axed, retroactive to 01/01/2013. Luckily the state senate recognized how unfair that would be to buyers that had no idea he was aiming to eliminate it and had already purchased. As of April 15th, it'll be gone and only available for natural gas capable vehicles

Luckily, we were able to pick up our PiP last weekend!

 

OK then, momentary enlightenment, at least they are not taxing the PIP like Virginia is. What's up with Virginia anyway?

 

CA is not a tax credit, it's a straight up cash rebate. HOV access still in full force, but the toll situation varies depending on location: in some places, solo PiP drivers have to pay full toll, in other places, they pay reduced carpool tolls.

 

Wish the fed tax credit could be carried over. I couldn't take the tax credit this year (too much in carry over losses), so I lost it. Bad planning on my part.

 

Sadly, I wasn't able to convert several people I know that were in the market for a new vehicle. You can lead a horse to water but...

 

Guaranteed for 2013, 2014, and 2015. Efforts are underway to extend that.

 

A law is moving at the usual glacial pace through the state legislature to extend the validity of the green HOV stickers a few more years.

 

It's a little too generous to say it's guaranteed for 2015 as they are only valid to January 1, 2015.

Eligible Vehicles - Single Occupant Carpool Lane Use Stickers

 

Oops, my mistake. I remembered that it was for 3 years and manage to forget that they launched last year.
So, guaranteed for 2012, 2013, 2014 is what I meant to say

 

Not enlightened? Wait a minute now. The party is never over in WV. Did you know that an entire meth lab can be run by the PIP as a backup generator during an electrical outage?

With all the PIP tax incentives being taken away at the state level across the country, it sounds systematic. Makes you wonder if there is a lobbying group working against them.

It seems like a lot of groups were in favor of keeping it in WV: Tomblin proposes ending tax credit on plug-in cars 
- Statehouse News -
Charleston Daily Mail - West Virginia News and Sports -

 

$7500 was probably a mistake, but some incentive makes sense, since we are "beta-testing" a new type of car, which if it works will help our society at large. We PIP owners are taking a risk on a new technology. Risk usually goes with reward - isn't that a conservative argument? Becoming energy independent is one of the few things that conservatives and liberals can agree on, so my vote is to do more of it, not less as these incentive-ending policies will do.

 

I'm going to say I disagree with you, that it was not the right thing, but not becuase I don't think it needed to change. Rather, the alterations were the wrong course of action and reek of a political favor to natural gas industry (before I attract too much scorn, I'm heavily invested in a producer headquartered in Charleston, who happens to be a prime example of a company that doesn't need any more legislation or taxpayer assistance to be successful).

I couldn't agree more that the credit was bad policy, as you could purchase an E85 capable truck or car and claim the same credit, despite the obvious lack of both ability to purchase E85 here and the distinct abscense of any benefit from having consumers run E85. The amount available under the credit was also too high, so we agree again. The original version also contained no requirement that the vehicle remain in posession of the purchaser until the credit had been fully claimed - a huge omission. The credit could and unfortunately still can, be claimed by businesses at a nearly unlimited rate. Here's where our agreeance will hit the virtual fork in the road. Natural Gas producers and operators of large fleets will continue to have a $7,500 credit at their disposal, and the common taxpayer will no longer have any real incentive available. A scaled down credit for Plug-In Hybrids, Hybrids, Bio Fuel, and Natural Gas would have helped maintain the proliferation of cleaner, more efficient vehicles, without providing one particular class or group an unecessary tax break.

My 2 cents.