Posted By
JULIE CRIDLER
on
7/14/2010 2:32 PM
Recently introduced legislation, the Electric Vehicle Deployment Act of 2010, lays the groundwork for a community-based strategy for rolling out electric vehicles and increasing their market penetration on a national scale. If the legislation is enacted, there will be between 5 and 15 communities selected to encourage the deployment of electric vehicles through a series of incentive programs, tax credits, and financial assistance initiatives that are designed to bring the financial benefits closer to the point of sale. For example, in the deployment communities the $7,500 federal tax credit is increased to $10,000 and can even be transferred to a dealer so the purchase price of the vehicle could be accordingly reduced. Other examples of benefits afforded the deployment communities include funding for projects to bring a public charging infrastructure online more quickly and an extension of the federal tax credit for installing a home charger (extended through 2016 vs. 2012) among other things.
The rationale behind the community approach is that the lessons learned and best practices adopted can be applied in other communities later on to speed market penetration of electric vehicles nationally. It sounds great in theory, but will it work? A couple of drawbacks quickly come to mind. First, every community is different. What works well in one may not work at all in another, so there is no guarantee that the lessons learned can be seamlessly applied across all regions of the U.S. And, what if the wrong communities are selected for the test cases? Starting in the wrong markets could impede forward progress on a larger scale later. If EVs are met with less than enthusiasm by consumers in the deployment communities and they generate less than favorable publicity, it could ultimately put a damper on consumer acceptance overall. That being said, we have to start somewhere, and maybe a handful of carefully selected test case communities is what the EV industry needs.
0 Response
to "EV Adoption: Will a Community-Based Strategy Work?"