President's Proposed 2013 Budget Includes EV Incentives

When President Obama submitted his proposed 2013 budget to Congress, one of the items in it was the elimination of the $7,500.00 federal tax credit for purchasing an electric vehicle.

But federal support for the purchase of electric and other alternative fuel vehicles won't be going away. The current incentive would be replaced by an Advanced Technology Vehicle credit of up to $10,000 per vehicle, with no limit on the number of vehicles that can be claimed. That maximum amount would remain constant through 2016; it would then gradually decrease (by $2,500 per year) through 2019.

Unlike current incentives, this money would be given to the manufacturer, seller or finance company, with the purpose of encouraging the production of alternative fuel vehicles and keeping Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Prices (MSRP) low enough to encourage drivers to purchase these vehicles instead of traditional gasoline-fueled vehicles.

Many details remain to be worked out, including whether the incentive would include Neighborhood Electric Vehicles (NEVs) and Low Speed Electric Vehicles (LSVs). Further discussion and changes are expected before the measure could be adopted in some form.