Minnesota Legislature Proposes Two New EV Tax Rebates
Originally published on EV Obsession.
The Minnesota legislature recently put forward two new electric vehicle tax credit support bills — potentially offering buyers of plug-in vehicles a means of cutting the cost of ownership by several thousand dollars — according to recent reports.
One of the bills, HF 3513, would grant tax rebates of $2,500 for new all-electric vehicles (EVs), and $1,500 for new plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs). The other bill, HF 2926, would grant a tax credit of up to $1,000 to buyers of electric vehicles, and to buyers of some renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies.
As far as HF 3513 goes, the funding for the tax rebate program would reportedly come from already existing solar energy incentive programs. The proposed rebates would expire in 2021, going by the current wording used. Notably, the bill would also require utility companies to develop public electric vehicle charging stations, which would further aid the rate of adoption.
The two bills — HF 3513 and HF 2926 — both have until the current legislative session ends (May 23) to make it through both houses.
State representative Pat Garofalo, R-Farmington — the lead sponsor of the measure in the House (and a Tesla Model S owner) — was recently quoted as saying: “It’s a win-win for everybody. Environmentalists get a lot less pollution and conservatives get less cost than the current program.”
As it stands, there are only around 3,500 plug-in vehicles on Minnesota’s roads — out of a total number of 4.6 million. So there’s certainly room for growth — which will no doubt pick up, regardless of incentives, as EV offerings continue to become more compelling.
(A hat tip to reader Joel Acker.)
Reprinted with permission.
Have a tip for CleanTechnica? Want to advertise? Want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.
CleanTechnica Holiday Wish Book
Our Latest EVObsession Video
CleanTechnica uses affiliate links. See our policy here.
It is too bad that only some politicians have common sense, but guess a lot of them are only after money (from big corps), sadly.
” As far as HF 3513 goes, the funding for the tax rebate program would
reportedly come from already existing solar energy incentive programs.” I smell a BIG rat on this one. Take the money from existing solar incentive programs (which benefit homeowners with rooftop solar) and give that money to EV buyers (who will probably use grid produced electricity thus benefiting the Electric Utilities). This bill should have been described as an electric utility subsidy. If the MN legislature REALLY wants to support EV buyers AND the environment they need to find a different funding source-Like a special additional tax on gasoline or diesel fuel