Oregon Legislature Passes Electric Vehicle Purchase Incentives Package

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As part of a new $5.3 billion transportation funding package passed by the Oregon Senate and House, Oregon will finally be instituting a plug-in electric vehicle purchase rebate program.

The new program will provide those purchasing a plug-in electric vehicle with a battery pack capacity larger than 10 kilowatt-hours (kWh) with a $2,500 rebate. Those purchasing an electric vehicle with a battery pack capacity of less than 10 kWh will have access to a $1,500 rebate.

The rebate program will be funded to the tune of $12 million a year for 6 successive years, and will only apply to vehicles whose base price is under $50,000.

In addition to those rebates, the new funding package includes a “Charge Ahead” fund that provides up to $2,500 to low- and moderate-income drivers who are scrapping and replacing a vehicle that is at least 20 years old with an electric one.

The two rebate programs can be combined to provide a total rebate of up to $5,000.

Green Car Reports provides more: “Rebates have also been authorized for low-speed neighborhood electric vehicles and for electric motorcycles, starting in 2019. … The transportation funding package, HB 2017, phases in additional fees for registering and titling electric cars, although they don’t take effect until 2020, when more plug-in vehicles will be found on the state’s roads.

“Those fees will total approximately $110 a year, roughly in line with other states that have added fees on fully and partially battery-operated vehicles to make up for the gasoline taxes they don’t pay.”

Alongside these changes, the funding package includes $100 million a year for mass transit.

Notably, Forth (previously Drive Oregon) was involved in lobbying for the new rebates.

Images via Forth


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James Ayre

James Ayre's background is predominantly in geopolitics and history, but he has an obsessive interest in pretty much everything. After an early life spent in the Imperial Free City of Dortmund, James followed the river Ruhr to Cofbuokheim, where he attended the University of Astnide. And where he also briefly considered entering the coal mining business. He currently writes for a living, on a broad variety of subjects, ranging from science, to politics, to military history, to renewable energy.

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