Electric vehicle discounts

[mem-winterhill.livejournal.com]

Hey folks--

I heard about this program for electric vehicle discounts recently. I've always been intending to get an EV eventually, but the recent election made me worried that future administrations may not be so generous with the tax rebates on them. So I began looking harder.

There's a program that I heard about via MassEnergy, a non-profit, encouraging more transportation to be low emissions.  https://www.massenergy.org/drivegreen

I was initially waiting for a Bolt, but I recently heard there's no way they are coming to MA this calendar year. And there are probably going to be waiting lists. So I got a different one. With the discounts, state + federal incentives, it ends up being just about $15,000 for a new vehicle that I got. And they had 0% financing. My experience was very similar to this story: http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1102592_how-i-got-a-new-2015-nissan-leaf-electric-car-for-16k-net-indecision. And now I can charge my car with my solar panels. I'm never going to the gas station again.

State funding for rebates was about to run out a couple of days ago, but they added new funds: https://mor-ev.org/funding

There remains support in the state for increased adoption of these cars, I hope this will make it through:  http://sherborn.wickedlocal.com/news/20161113/mass-senate-passes-electric-cars-bill

I'm increasingly worried that reducing emissions won't be a priority for the country, but acting locally will still matter. If you have considered EVs, have a look at this MassEnergy program.

I am not affiliated with MassEnergy, and this isn't related to any city stuff I was doing in a volunteer capacity on the solar program. Just sharing something I heard about.

Comments

[irilyth]

We've had a 2013 Leaf for three years now, and love it. Even without installing fancy charging hardware, you can charge it off a 110V outlet (probably best to have a dedicated one, but if you've got one in your garage already, it may well be on its own circuit) and get around 3 - 4 mi of range per hour, so even just 12 hours a day is enough to drive 35 - 50 mi per day, and you can fill up on weekends if you don't drive as much. Not a magic bullet for every use case, but a good fit for more people than you might expect.

(Also, super fun to drive. This is not your grandpa's golf cart. :^)

[mem-winterhill.livejournal.com]

Yeah, at first I thought I needed to have a heavy-duty charger installed, but for my situation I don't. There's a separate program I heard about to get access to one: http://www.plugmyride.org/ Eversource is looking for test homes. But when I checked with my electricians, I can't install that kind of charger without some serious upgrades to my service. This is an old house problem.

This is not the car for everyone, certainly. But for a lot of us urban types, it's enough to supplement the walking, biking, and T for the stuff that's off those routes.

Glad to hear you are happy with your Leaf. I expect to own mine for many years.

[somerfriend.livejournal.com]

What are the electrical requirements? I would think just 100 or 200 amp panel with extra slots available? Do you have a 60 amp panel? Upgrading the service is generally 2-4k, and is non invasive. Power would be off for a few hours during the day. Many insurance policies don't allow 60 amp panels anymore.

[mem-winterhill.livejournal.com]

Well, that $2000-$4000 is kind of prohibitive in this case. And I was told that's the low end of what I'd need, before adding in the work for the Level 2 charger. I have electricians who know my house pretty well now, and they said it would be challenging for some other reasons.

But it's just unnecessary with my driving habits. I can deal with the low level charging. There's also a Nissan dealer just about a mile from my house and I could go use their speed charger for 30min in a pinch.

[somerfriend.livejournal.com]

OK, the purpose of my question was more for the general public's knowledge.

I think in most cases, upgrading electric service is not a challenge. The wiring goes from outside straight into a unfinished basement, with no twists and turns. But individual cases may vary. And yes if you don't need it to charge fast, a regular outlet is good.