Rebate Program for Plug-In Cars to Get Under Way Soon in San Diego Area

Rebate Program for Plug-In Cars to Get Under Way Soon in San Diego Area


PHOTO CREDIT: SUNPLUGGERS.COM
The Tesla Roadster and Nissan Leaf will
be among cars eligible for state rebate.
Above, a Leaf at its U.S. debut in 2009.
Published March 12, 2009
California is about to roll out a Clean Vehicle Rebate Project that will cut up to $5,000 off the price of a plug-in passenger car and as much as $20,000 from the cost of qualifying zero-emission commercial vehicles.
The $3.7 million allotted by the state's Air Resources Board to dispense in rebates over the next year may be gone much sooner than that. It will apparently be available first-come, first served, and it may help to live or have a business in the San Diego area.
The California Center for Sustainable Energy in San Diego has been chosen by the board to administer the project, which will provide rebates for both buying and leasing various types of plug-in vehicles.
The Tesla Roadster, the only originally designed, highway-capable electric car available for immediate delivery in the United States, will be eligible for the rebate as soon as the program gets under way in the coming weeks. The initial list of eligible vehicles will be expanded as other plug-ins, such as the Nissan Leaf, become available, according to the center.
The project is aimed at zero-emission vehicles but includes plug-in hybrids. Motorcycles, medium- and heavy-duty commercial vehicles, and small "neighborhood" electric vehicles also will be eligible. The list of specific models for which rebates will initially be offered has not yet been released.
San Diego has been chosen as one of 11 cities in five states where the debut of the Nissan Leaf will be accompanied by large-scale installations of charging stations. As many as 2,000 residential charging stations and 1,500 public access stations are to be installed in the San Diego area by mid-2011.
The Leaf is scheduled to become available in very limited numbers late this year and early in 2011. About 2,000 cars from the first production runs are to be distributed to customers in the San Diego area.
Further details and the list of eligible vehicles will be released in the next few weeks, according to the Center for Sustainable Energy.