Plug In America surveys EV promotion landscape

"Got Juice?" Maybe that's on way to generate more nationwide awareness of plug-in vehicles. It worked for the dairy industry, right? Something needs to happen, because according to plug-in vehicle advocacy group Plug In America, something needs to be done.

In a nutshell, Plug In America says the cars aren't the problem. Indeed, satisfaction levels tend to be high for cars like the Tesla Roadster and Model S, Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet Volt. Since mass-produced plug-ins started hitting US roads four years ago, about 300,000 have been sold, so that means a lot of happy customers.

But as the number of plug-in vehicle models available in the US (most of them just in California) doubles to about 40 by the end of next year, national and regional government entities need to do a better job coming up with a unified message touting the attributes of plug-in vehicles in order to reach Plug In America's target of having electric vehicles account for 80 percent of US vehicles by 2050. The analysis comes from a recent 35-page report titled The Promotion of Electric Vehicles in the United States.

Plug In America says the Multi-State ZEV Action Plan that eight states launched in 2013 to get 3.3 million electric vehicles on their roads within the next decade is a good starting point. Still, overall public efforts remain spotty, especially in the flyover states, where neither governments nor automakers are doing an optimal job to ensure those residents get the message.

Plug In America predicts good EV sales in 2014 and beyond

No one here is surprised that Plug In America is confident in the future of plug-in vehicles. This is a group that has fought for years to increase their numbers in the US and was able to celebrate, finally, the sale of the 100,000th EV (a Mitsubishi i-MiEV) here earlier this year. In other words, PIA has reason to see the upside.

In a fundraising email, Richard Kelly, president of Plug In America, took stock of what the group accomplished in 2013, including the third National Plug In Day (NPID, pictured), and he said the year was a "pivotal" one for plug-in vehicles. How, exactly, National Plug In Day affects EV sales is something Kelly said PIA will explore in 2014, along with a plan "to build on what works, go even bigger, and see if we can surpass this performance." The 2013 NPID was the biggest ever, hitting 98 cities around the world.

Kelly wrote that the upswing in EV sales should continues for at least the next three years. "Some journalists are still reporting that plug-in sales are petering out, or have some limit that is fast approaching," he said. "If we believed this, we'd pack it up today. But we see huge potential in the next three years."

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News Source: Plug In America

This weekend, someone just might buy the 100,000th electric car in the US

It's tough to know for sure how many plug-in vehicles have been sold throughout the US, but if anyone has been keeping count, it's the fine folks at Plug In America. And, according to them, somewhere in America this weekend, maybe, someone will buy the 100,000th electric car. PIA says it expects the "historic milestone" to happen by Monday, May 20, 2013.

This isn't counting golf carts or GEMs or any of the old-school EVs, things like the EV1 or the first-generation RAV4 EVs. No, PIA is only tracking vehicles like the Nissan Leaf, Chevy Volt and Tesla Model S that have come along in the last two years or so. We know Nissan has sold over 25,000 Leafs in the USand the Volt has sold more than 36,000 as of the end of April. That leaves 40,000 more from the likes of Tesla, Fisker, Ford and all the others we write about all day. PIA is promoting the event with the #PIA100K hashtag and notes that plug-in vehicles are approaching 48 percent annual growth, so the next 100,000 can't be too far away.

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It is Time to File For Your EV Federal Tax Credit

One month from today, your 2011 Federal and state tax returns will be due.

(It would have been a month from yesterday, but April 15 falls on a Sunday this year.)

So consider this your friendly reminder to make sure that if you bought a plug-in car during 2011, you remember to apply for the Federal income-tax credit of $2,500 to $7,500, depending on its battery pack size.

Details of the Federal credit are completed on either Form 8936 (for regular cars) or Form 8834 (for two- and three-wheeled vehicles or low-speed electric cars). Each form has instructions attached.

Other credits include those for installation costs of an "alternative fuel vehicle refueling property credit," which means for most buyers a home electric-car charging station (Form 8911), and for conversion of a gasoline car to a plug-in vehicle (Form 8910).

Of those four incentives, the credit for purchase of a regular plug-in vehicle remains in effect for 2012, but the other three expired on December 31. You can still claim them on your 2011 taxes, but that will be the last year--except for the purchase credit.

If you leased the plug-in car, mind you--most likely a Nissan Leaf or Chevrolet Volt--you don't get to claim the credit. Instead, it's been claimed by the leaseholder, who used the money to reduce your monthly payment.

Money, money, money

While analysts largely agree that purchase rebates, which arrive in the form of a check just a few weeks after purchase, are better than income-tax credits, the incentive is nonetheless a welcome reduction in the high cost of a plug-in car.

As for state, regional, local, and corporate incentives on top of the Federal credit, they're far too numerous to go into here.

The advocacy group Plug-In America keeps a list of every incentive it's identified, available online.

Check your local area for those that may apply to you, and dream about Hawaii, which offers a $4,500 rebate on top of the Federal credit.

Sadly, the famous Colorado state credit that allowed buyers of $109,000 Tesla Roadsters to take $42,000 off their taxes expired at the end of 2009.

Ah, well.

Source: Green Car Reports

If You Can't Plug Your Car In

If you can't plug your car in...

Plug In America: EV Public Service Announcements

Here are a couple of public service announcements from Plug-In America that promote the adoption of electric vehicles. What do you think? Do ads such as these sway public opinion in any significant way?