Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Legislation and Policy, USA



Last year, about one percent of Georgia's new vehicles were battery-electric, the Atlanta Business Chronicle reported last month and Atlanta was a Nissan Leaf hotspot for many months. Sales were likely helped by the fact that neighboring states like South Carolina and Tennessee had lower EV incentives. This may all change, though, because Georgia just decided to put a cap on its up-until-now generous tax credit for people who buy battery-electric vehicles. The cutback was proposed by state Rep. Chuck Martin (R-Alpharetta).

Last week, Georgia, which has been providing a $5,000 tax credit for EV buyers, passed a law (HB 257) in which the aggregate annual amount given out under the program can't exceed $10 million. That means that after the first 2,000 Leafs, Tesla Model S EVs and other plug-in cars are purchased, all other prospective green-car drivers are out of luck for the year. The new wrinkle goes into effect next month.

Nissan is taking the news in stride. Atlanta was the most prolific US metropolitan area for Leaf sales between last August and last December, and company spokesman Brian Brockman told AutoblogGreen that Nissan "supports incentives, such as the one in Georgia, as a way to increase consideration for electric cars among a broader group of consumers." And while the company doesn't disclose state-by-state sales figures, Leaf sales "are now growing rapidly in Georgia." It will be interesting to see if this changes 2,000 sales from now.Georgia scales back plug-in support, now limited to 2,000 EVs a year originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Thu, 20 Mar 2014 07:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.



Permalink | Email this | Comments

More...