Connecticut Increases Its Electric Vehicle Incentives – CleanTechnica

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Though federal electric vehicle incentives are gone in the United States, some states still have them. As we’ve reported already, these states include: California, Colorado, New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

Add another to the list: Connecticut, which has actually increased its new battery electric vehicle incentive from $500 to $1,000. The plug-in hybrid incentive is $500.

For new and used fully electric vehicles, there is also an incentive for income-qualified residents for up to $3,000 more. So, for an income-qualified resident, the total incentive could be $4,000.

For plug-in hybrids, there is an additional incentive of $1,500 for income-qualified applicants, bringing the total to $2,000.

For used fully electric vehicles, there is an additional income-qualified incentive. Combining the standard incentive of $1,000 with the additional incentive totals $5,000.

For a person who qualifies for the full incentive, a used Chevy Bolt at $5,000 less than the sticker price might be a steal! For a used Chevy Equinox EV, the same might be true, depending on the driver’s needs.

A used Tesla Model 3 with an asking price of $23,000 would be knocked down to $18,000. A used Tesla Model Y at $29,000 would be $24,000. These could be good deals for many drivers, if they don’t care about Elon Musk’s politics or social media activities.

One of the claims that online trolls, critics, haters, and the unaware try to make is that electric vehicles “cost too much,” but somehow completely overlook two facts. One is that there are multiple affordable electric vehicles now and there is an active used EV market with many good deals. Another is that in some cases, but not all, the total cost of ownership for fully electric vehicles can be less than their fossil-fuel-burning counterparts.

Additionally, there are costs to human health from burning fossil fuels. “Dr. Mark Mitchell, co-chair of the Connecticut Equity and Environmental Justice Advisory Council, called the emissions news ‘disturbing.’ Vehicle-based emissions are significant contributors to air pollution-related conditions, such as asthma, premature birth, autism, ADHD and Alzheimer’s Disease. ‘This disproportionately affects low-wealth communities … and also disproportionately affect people of color of all income levels, due to historical and systemic racialized policies, such as the location of highways and other sources of pollution,’ Mitchell said in a statement.”

Furthermore, a big cost of burning fossil fuels is climate change impacts. Gasoline and diesel fuel can’t get any cleaner and their contribution to climate change impacts must be considered in the cost of buying internal combustion engine vehicles. These costs go far beyond the sticker prices.

The state of Connecticut still combusts fossil fuels to generate electricity used to charge EVs, but it has also improved its clean electricity generation.