The Obama Administration provides an online platform for grassroots petitions urging action on a range of issues. Entrepreneurs and advocates for electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles conversions have taken advantage of the platform to create a petition urging the Administration to extend the Qualified Plug-in Electric Drive Motor Vehicles (IRC 30D) tax incentives, currently granted for new plug-in vehicles, to plug-in conversions.
Conversions target 250M existing vehicles on the roads, can save over 40% of fuel use or no fuel at all, have a smaller carbon footprint than new car since they reuse most of the original vehicle, and cost less to buy as an incremental expense making plug-in more affordable.
Supporting Equal Incentives for Conversions will: stimulate jobs to a different workforce segment than new cars, more quickly expand the number of fuel saving vehicles on the road, develop plug-in / EV industry expertise more broadly and quickly across the country and reach 1M plug-ins by 2015.—Equal Incentives for Conversions petition
Jack Chen, of Enginer, Inc. (Troy, Michigan and Shanghai, China), who created the petition, notes that aftermarket plug-in conversion should be a big component of solving energy security and global warming issues. However, he notes:
The US Federal policy discourages aftermarket plug-in conversion in general with no tax incentives that are provided to new plug-in vehicles ($2,500-$7,500 tax credit). Without the same incentives, the plug-in conversion industry will be put into a disadvantaged position and can’t be formed.
A petition needs to reach 25,000 signatures in order to be reviewed by White House staff (and 150 to be searchable); the Equal Incentives for Conversions petition currently has 106.
Source: Green Car Congress
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