Senate passes plug-in tax credits in Wall Street bailout bill
When Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson first proposed last week that Congress should give him $700 billion to do with as he pleased in an attempt to save Wall St, the plan ran a staggering two and a half pages. That's because the plan essentially consisted of "Give Hank the money, and then go away and he'll take care of everything without supervision." Congress, of course, was going to have none of that and set about writing a bill in more typical congressional fashion. That means lots of extra stuff added, bringing the bill that passed in the Senate the other day to a more Congressional 451 pages. All the extra stuff, including pet projects, got added on, for example a reported $150 billion in extra spending.
One particular $1 billion chunk of that extra money has been earmarked to provide cash back to American drivers who opt to buy plug-in vehicles. Tax credits starting at $4,168 (there's a nice round number for you) will go to people to buy a vehicle with a battery pack that has at least 4 kWh of capacity. From there the credits ramp up to $7,500 for vehicles with a 16 kWh pack. For those that haven't been paying attention, that just happens to be the size of the pack in the Chevy Volt. Medium and heavy duty trucks with plug-in capability are also eligible for credits of $10-15,000.
[Source: Detroit News]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Woodenbee 11:35AM (10/03/2008)
10-15k for trucks, that's the ultimate greenwashing, oh well business as usual, people buying trucks they don't need with tax breaks they don't deserve, are there any tax breaks for converting your gas car to electric/renewables? isn't that a better idea all round, wouldn't that create thousands of jobs and jump start the EV revolution in a single stroke?
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meme 12:31PM (10/03/2008)
I'm thrilled with the wording. For the first time, it applies to simply "motor vehicles" -- not "passenger automobiles" or, even worse, mandating that only vehicles with four wheels count. This really matters to me as I'm on the waiting list for an Aptera.
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GoodCheer 3:55PM (10/03/2008)
meme: That's wonderful. Last time I read the proposed bill was quite a while ago when it specified that to be eligible vehicles had to have ICEs on board (it was even more the Volt bill back then).
So this drops the price of the Aptera e to what... $21,500 or so?
Man I wish I lived in CA (or they get national distribution soon).
cazancoz 6:43PM (10/03/2008)
Well sounds perfect for when I will be buying a Volt :).
Anybody know where we can read about the exact details of these tax incentives?
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Bob 11:25PM (10/03/2008)
If they can add another 700Wh to the battery, suddenly this all-electric crotch rocket is only $5500:
http://www.electricmotorsport.com/store/ems_electric_motorcycle_gpr-s.php
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Tim 9:25AM (10/04/2008)
sizzle...sizzle...sizzle...
Sell the sizzle, not the high cholesterol PORK that is giving American a financial heart-attack.
Congress never cooked pork that they did NOT shove down OUR throats.
$ TRILLIONS in new pork & pork by products every session.
BOTH McCain (NeoCon-Fascist) & Obama (Democrat-Socialist) ignore their Constitutional Oath & embrace this Federal Totalitarianism!
Want REAL change? YOU Change!
Vote for ANY 3rd party & ARM YOURSELVES!
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mike baz 8:36PM (10/04/2008)
The US is now going to enter an era of hyper inflation. Your grand kids will curse you for allowing this bill to pass. The tax credits are great, but, sorry to be so pessimistic, at this point, it's just re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
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Jason 10:51AM (10/06/2008)
The American people didn't allow this bill to pass. Several senators admitted to receiving thousands of emails and calls, with at least 90% of the people against the bill. I emailed my senators urging them to vote against the bill. The fact is, representing the people is GONE. It's not longer We the People, it's elected officials looking out for their own agenda's.
@Tim - I've got my beans, rice and ammo ready.