Quite by accident today I bumped into nice looking FISKER KARMA on display with sales associate. After the obligatory small talk (50 miles per charge, gaso engine, made-in-Finland, etc) I asked her "how much $$$ does it cost??" $110,000. So I said at least you get the $7500 federal tax credit. She said Virginia residents also get free electric, that VA was one of 7 states giving free household elec to plug-in owners via rebate on your monthly elec bill. I did not know that, I told her I learned something. How does this work? What are the 7 states? If you look at Carmax.com (Laurel MD) the lowest cost for a new PiP is $30,168. Take the federal tax credit (~$2500) + free electric and that is not too bad. Also great for Volt and Leaf I presume. ...we can talk later about why USA/states are giving $$thousands rebates/credits to folks buying $110,000 cars made in Finland. The next Fisker will be made in USA, I was assured.
One provider in Texas has a "free nights" program but no separate meter needed as it's for the entire house.
...apparently VA is similar. You have your choice of (1) House + EV program, or just (2) EV program. If you do EV program, you get second meter for EV (elec company installs). If you do House+EV program, you get a new meter for whole house that does 30-minutes increments. I guess this is what the Fisker rep was referring to, not actually free but pretty darn cheap on off-peak. The rationale for this program is, apparently "Virginia is for (Prius) Lovers". We like 'em. So the program is testing to see if there will also be interest in Plug-Ins. Electric Vehicle + Home Pricing Plan
T To add to your post, WJTRACY, the Virginia program is a pilot program, through November, and will close once the program reaches its final signup date this November OR once the two parts of the program (whole house Time Of Use which includes a hard wired EVSE program OR the house being metered "as is" and a separate sub-meter Time Of Use for the hard-wired electric car EVSE , billed as separate use lines on the on the same electric monthly bill) reach 750 members each. I am signed up for the separate EVSE meter plan. Our electric utility told me the pilot program was made possible by federal Stimulus $$$ that paid for speccial TOU smart meters, so the user for the separate house and EVSE metering program pays for the meter base and separate line installation and the utility provides the second meter for free. Although our PiPs have a relatively small-capacity traction battery, I jumped on this program to plan for the future, as plug-in cars with much greater-capacity traction batteries are bound to get plentiful within a couple of years - then the TOU charging for a plug-in with batteries that take say, six hours @ 240V, at the cheapest possible rates will be locked-in for this house. Again, for those readers in Virginia, this pilot program sign-up closes in November. Dominion Virginia web site quoted by WJTRACY has the details.
It seems like if it is a multi-state program, the state would be doing the rebates, not the electric utility. It is an interesting approach. Perhaps you gather up your monthly electric bills, include your vehicle VIN, and get a flat monthly rebate based on typical EV charging costs, maybe $30/month in electric rebates.
Electric Vehicle + Home Pricing Plan ...thanks for chiming in, for a while there I thought I had dead post, now we have some meat on the bones. VA PiP owners or prospective owners may want to take note ASAP.
Note: Thread is back! It went off-line yesterday. I had to rescue it from the dead zone. Moderator Paradox advised me that the new software took it offline. I am hoping VA PiP owners can take advantage of this deal (before the Volt owners find out).
Is there a site which lists all the benefits to Plug-in owners per state? I'm in NY, and this is my first hybird, so I'd like to learn if there is anything like this out there in my area.
Yes there are a number of sites, if you Google "Electric Vehicles State" you gets some hits. Wikipedia has a good list (below). However, some things like the VA utility discount plan are very hard to find. Probably you want to talk to your dealer for update and post here for NY. I guess we should have a sticky thread on this. Government incentives for plug-in electric vehicles - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I found the Virginia EVSE pilot program through my PiP dealer when I bought my PiP (Thank You Koons Arlington Toyota!). Unfortunately, because this and other Virginia energy programs are often dependent on outside factors like Federal stimulus funds, they are often transitory. In a similar vein, while renovating the house in 2008 - 2010, I caught a Virginia residential energy conservation improvement rebate worth almost $600.00 about six weeks before it closed for good, and had just missed the parallel Virginia residential Ground-Sourced Heat Pump installation rebate worth $2000.00 by like five weeks (grrrr...). Both had been funded by Federal stimulus funds, and you had to know where to look to catch either program.
My dealer didn't even know about the federal $2500 tax credit. When I asked him, he had to go check with the financial guy, who told me that I should talk to an accountant about it. Sticky thread would be a great idea IMO.
not aware of any states that provide free household electricity for EVs but great that you get it. problem for me would be that I would have to pony up the cash to install a separate meter which most likely means renters would be SOL. as it is, I do have several free public options including DCFC which is what i use. it gives me a 35-40 mile range boost in 11 minutes. VERY HANDY!!
