With oil despoiling the Gulf Coast, the time seemed auspicious to introduce a vehicle electrification bill in Congress.

The legislation will create the charging infrastructure and incentives needed for large-scale adoption of electric vehicles in key geographic regions. Not surprisingly, the House and Senate versions of the Electric Drive Vehicle Deployment Act of 2010 have won the enthusiastic support of the nation’s electricity suppliers.

“The electric vehicle is the way forward to end America’s debilitating addiction to oil and strengthen our national security and energy independence, spur innovation and job creation, and clean the air to benefit future generations,” said David Crane, president and CEO of NRG Energy.

“We commend the authors of this farsighted legislation along with their aim of building additional bipartisan support in both houses of Congress. This bill comes as affordable and fun electric vehicles enter the market and we, alongside our partners in the Electrification Coalition, work to advance an American clean energy economy and the very real benefits of the electric vehicle.”

Among the key provisions of the legislation are consumer incentives of $2,000 or more for the first 100,000 consumers purchasing electric vehicles in special designated communities, which would serve as test beds for the new technologies. Those communities would be chosen by the Secretary of Energy, and they will also receive $800 million to help reach the objective of deploying 700,000 electric vehicles in those communities within six years.

The bills also extend the electric vehicle tax credit of up to $7,500, and they add tax credits of up to $2,000 for the costs of purchase and installation of electric vehicle charging equipment.

Businesses could reap up to $50,000 in tax credits for installing such equipment. Estimates are the bills would cost taxpayers some $10 billion to $11 billion over five years.

 

 

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Driving Today Auto Review - Electrifying Transportation