evnow said:
Note that above article by Jim is talking about the 50% off EVSE. The 7.5K credit, AFAIK, doesn't need reauthorization.
But, the 7.5K can only be increased to 10K with a new bill, of course.
Not that I'd mind getting another $2.5K, but I think that money would be better spent on charging infrastructure, battery R&D, wind turbine R&D, smart grid, V2G, etc. The current tax credit is enough to make Leaf "mainstream" and I don't think a little bit more would sway a lot more people to try EV early on. I believe that in the 2011 and 2012 model years, Leaf will be constrained by Nissan's production capacity, not by demand.
The crucial test for EV viability will be the success of those first 40,000 US customers of 2011/12 Leafs, and that gets back to the public infrastructure. People need to see their neighbors commuting in their Leafs, without anxiety. Then when Nissan can build 200,000 Leafs in the 2013 model year they can find buyers, as can Ford Fusion EV, GM Volt, and others. With that kind of volume, batteries may be driven down the cost curve towards Ghosn's target of 1M EV's per year, to be cost competitive with ICE without government subsidy. And with that kind of volume we could see lithium air or carbon nanotube batteries commercialized by2019 when we need to replace batteries in our Leafs, and get a 2X to 10X improvement on range and/or cost.
But if instead the public sees a lot of Leafs towed or trucked back to dealers for recharging, and late model Leafs sitting on used car lots at deep discount, then none of that is going to happen.