GRA
Well-known member
Via GCR:
This sort of falls into the "Well, duh!" category, but at least there's some good numbers available now. I've been hoping that CARB would revise Ca. incentives to allow people to take either the rebate or get an HOV sticker but not both, and hopefully this study will bring that about. Most people with the income to afford a new PEV who also can use HOV lanes derive far more monetary benefit (in terms of time saved) from the HOV stickers than the state rebate gives them.
Personally, I'd rather see the HOV stickers just go away entirely, as they encourage environmentally unsound behavior, but since that's unlikely to happen they can at least reduce the size of the total state subsidy ZEV purchasers/lessees get, while allowing individuals to choose which one's more important to them. OTOH, CARB apparently issued about 5k green stickers in the past month or so, and are now a little over 4k short of the current cap, so unless the legislature increases the number of green stickers for a fourth time it won't matter for PHEVs after next month. I expect they will boost it again, probably up another 15k to 100k.
http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1101097_carpool-lane-access-very-important-for-electric-car-adoption-it-turns-outCarpool-Lane Access: Very Important For Electric-Car Adoption, It Turns Out
This sort of falls into the "Well, duh!" category, but at least there's some good numbers available now. I've been hoping that CARB would revise Ca. incentives to allow people to take either the rebate or get an HOV sticker but not both, and hopefully this study will bring that about. Most people with the income to afford a new PEV who also can use HOV lanes derive far more monetary benefit (in terms of time saved) from the HOV stickers than the state rebate gives them.
Personally, I'd rather see the HOV stickers just go away entirely, as they encourage environmentally unsound behavior, but since that's unlikely to happen they can at least reduce the size of the total state subsidy ZEV purchasers/lessees get, while allowing individuals to choose which one's more important to them. OTOH, CARB apparently issued about 5k green stickers in the past month or so, and are now a little over 4k short of the current cap, so unless the legislature increases the number of green stickers for a fourth time it won't matter for PHEVs after next month. I expect they will boost it again, probably up another 15k to 100k.