The Expert Podcast

It may not be visible every single day but there are tens of thousands of dollars available for consumers for buying an electric vehicle you may not be in the market for an electric vehicle right now but just be aware of what all the programs that are being offered to incentivize you to buy an electric vehicle there are forms you can fill out in every state in every county for three or four layers of rebates there's a federal rebate there are state rebates there are utility company rebates there are even local city and town rebates you can add all these together and be into the five figures for incentives for buying an electric vehicle we'll take a look at a couple of those but first here's another legal application of incentive for electric vehicles.
This has to do with new home construction in this particular county and look for this to spread the county is considering legislation that would require all houses to have an outlet for a charging station you have an outlet for dryer you have an outlet for a range this is going to require that new homes are built with outlets for an electric vehicle whether you have one or not and look whether you agree with whether electric vehicles should be required or not or you like them or not it doesn't matter because the government and the vehicle manufacturers are pushing these vehicles and we can debate all day long whether or not they're better for the environment or worse because of the mining of the different materials and the cobalt and the lithium and the graphite those are things which are separate from this conversation.
The bottom line is if you decide to get one or not for whatever reason if you're trying to save the environment or you're just trying to save money on gas in addition to all of the other reasons for and against getting an electric vehicle there are other factors at risk or at play here's an example where this particular electric company is offering 1 900 of it electric vehicle separate from that there's a rebate in this electric company for 500 and it doesn't matter if it's newer use this could go for either one in this part of vermont all of the electric companies have grouped together to have rebates up to five thousand including used vehicles 1200 for a new or leased 950 for a plug-in and even used vehicles 800 on pre-owned evs so depending upon which electric company you're within you have options to add this onto other rebates.
In the state of virginia they are adding a 2 500 rebate on top of the federal rebate which in most cases is five thousand however the federal government's even looking to up that to twelve thousand five hundred now some of these have requirements for income that you can't be above three hundred percent of the federal level of income which that might be a consideration but don't let any of this money slip through your fingers if you're at all interested in electric vehicles one last example from new york is there again adding 2 000 on top of the federal 7500 and this is from the state this has nothing to do with local or from the electric company.
So what do you do with all this potential money best thing to do is look at stacking it if all of these rebates are available to an individual purchase take your federal take the state take the local get the electric company rebate in addition you may find that the electric company rebate for the vehicle is separate from an incentive to add the electrical circuit to your house there might be two different things you might be able to get 500 or 800 or a thousand from the electric company for you to purchase the vehicle and on top of that have an incentive to install electrical charging service in your house.
In fact even if you are not buying an electric vehicle if you go to your electric company and find out what programs they have for installation of a circuit branch circuit to your house for an electric vehicle charging station you may be able to get an incentive for that without buying a vehicle and you can work with an electrician to add that circuit maybe in conjunction with other electrical work on your house the most important thing is recognize that at this point in time many official agencies are looking to promote the adoption of electric vehicles whether you agree with it or not doesn't matter that money is out there and if you can take it and make it an advantage for you to consider an electric vehicle that maybe you wouldn't otherwise consider or maybe it's something that's available when other gas vehicles are not available.
Look if an electric vehicle doesn't match your lifestyle it doesn't matter but if it's a gray area where it could go either way use these incentives to help sway your decision one way or another the big news in all of this is many states are now including used electric vehicles in their rebate program used evs and the reason for it is up until a year or two ago there weren't many that used evs on the road that were being traded in in fact in 2022 of all the vehicles on the road less than one percent were electric vehicles so how many of them are going to be in the used car market not many so now that electric vehicles are starting to appear in the used car market more and more agencies are starting to incentivize the purchase.
It might be a way to get a screaming deal on a used electric vehicle by applying the rebate or incentive to an already depreciated vehicle just make sure you check out the battery to make sure it's a good healthy battery life remaining in the main charging battery and you pick out a vehicle that matches your lifestyle for range how fast it charges but find out what rebates incentives are available now if you are in a situation where your income may change from one year to another you have too many tax deductions already you might want to consider when you're going to execute a purchase of an electric vehicle so that you get the most tax incentive if you already have a lot of incentives and extra tax rebates won't help you this year maybe wait till next year or vice versa if you're going to buy another electric vehicle at some point in the future make sure you're not doing the transactions in a way that limit the amount of rebates you can get.
Start by getting the electric vehicle incentive forms from the federal government the state your local jurisdiction your utility company and lay them out on the table and see which ones you can use in your scenario find out from the dealer what incentives they may know about there are some manufacturers that also have additional incentives on electric vehicles add them all up stack them all up and you can turn a normal vehicle transaction into a highly discounted purchase especially this day and age where new vehicles are not really being discounted that much some dealers are taking regular msrp sticker list price and jacking it up because there's no inventory it's not quite as prevalent on electric vehicles at this point so you may be able to get a reasonable deal to begin with plus all these discounts look it might be the only way to get a discount on a car purchase in 2022. there's still a shortage of cars.
Also verify anything the dealer tells you the dealer tells you there's certain rebates available make sure you double triple check it before you take their word for it sometimes they may accidentally leave out information about a rebate or sometimes intentionally to try to get you to buy a car represent something that might not be 100 accurate in every case if you're looking to trade in a vehicle keep in mind that some of these incentives are enhanced if you trade in a vehicle that gets poor gas mileage the bigger the difference between your old vehicle and new vehicle sometimes that increases the amount of rebate and incentive you get so look at the forms see what's available add them up pick out a good car and see if having an electric vehicle even as a second car can be a good financial investment to save you on gas and save you on money over purchase.