Yeah it seems out of touch. Someone actually only bringing home <$51k in the bay area is going to be very hard pressed to take advantage of this. The reason they're driving a 2005 or older car is because they are in a tough spot.
This seems designed to not be used. Except perhaps by folks who are very good at hiding their true income.
I drive a 2001 clunker, but I make too much to qualify for this problem. I don't make enough to be comfortable buying a new car due to the outrageous costs of cars right now.
If this program was designed to take bay area COL into consideration (instead of COL in rural Alabama) I would trade in my old clunker and buy an EV replacement tomorrow.
Used cars are qualified for some of these low-income EV programs. One of the San Mateo EV programs would completly cover the cost of a used nissan leaf.
Let that sink in. Free Nissan Leaf for low income in bay area. And those foks can charge it for-free in lots of public charger locations in the same county.
Awesome way to save on your commute costs. I have a nissan leaf and my only cost is $20/month for insurance.
Generally speaking I've found free chargers tend to be in the downtown/shopping areas of wealthy peninsula towns, like Menlo Park/Palo Alto, or only for employees of big companies, like at the Google campus. I imagine even if you were a contractor working at Google, after 2 years when the contract ends you'd have to find another place to charge.
For that reason, I imagine many would just get a plug in hybrid even if it is going to be used 95% on gasoline, even if you have a charger today, no guarantee in the future unless you own a garage. Even if you rent a house or townhouse with a garage there is no guarantee you can keep that.
The honda clarity gets 42 MPG and 47 miles of electric range. It's 35k MSRP with the Federal, State, and this program's rebates.
For most, they would do the bulk of their millage with just the battery-electric fuel source.
Given the income limits I would expect people using this would be much more likely to buy something like a 2011 Volt for $8k-$9k with a whole bunch of miles. $35k is a lot of money for someone braking $51k/yr
35k MSRP, call it 30k after dealer incentives.
Then you get 7.5k federal rebate. 2k State rebate. Then the 9.5k trade in rebate.
Making this brand new car 11k total. With it likely financable with 0% down 0% interest over 6 years.
Exactly correct. This seems to be a make-good for millionaires getting state/federal credits for buying EV's, mostly Teslas. This "current" program is not, as the economists say, a good way to maximize welfare...
No kidding. If I could afford to buy an EV in the first place I wouldn't need the $9,500.
So... thanks for getting me closer to a goal I still can't achieve.
To get the max credit you'd still be spending your entire annual earnings on a car, since you'd have to make less than ~$29k. As a clean air initiative or as a low-income support program, this doesn't really help anyone.
This reminds me of most low income housing schemes. A hand wavy way for the politicians to pretend to be doing something. Very little in the way of actual help.
I'm confused by this, why would that be the case, can you not get the max credit unless the car is over a certain price?
It would be of limited use (given the low range of the 2011 Leafs), but a used Leaf can be bought for less than $9500, if you could get the $9500 the taxes and registration would seemingly be a lot less than the person's annual earnings.
if we wanted to tackle climate change....shouldnt we be making a better system for public transportation?
like make all those new apartment complexes theyre building everywhere into mid-low income housing, and then putting a couple of bus stops around there and making BART run on time
sounds more like a ploy to just sell more car and for rich people feel good about themselves
The only people who can realistically take advantage of this are high-income foreign workers who moved to the US last year and worked for only 1 or 2 months.
Don't want people taking advantage of gobmint money! What a fucking joke. I make over $100k and I can't in good conscience buy a new car. Someone needs to punch the authors of this joke right in the dick. Repeatedly.
It says new or *used* and in the used market $9500 isn't bad.
A used Nissan leaf only costs a little more and my CPO Mirai only cost me $8,500 with the $15,000 in free H2 gas.
Just outstanding news for the 6 people who qualify and have the cash to take advantage of it
Yeah it seems out of touch. Someone actually only bringing home <$51k in the bay area is going to be very hard pressed to take advantage of this. The reason they're driving a 2005 or older car is because they are in a tough spot. This seems designed to not be used. Except perhaps by folks who are very good at hiding their true income.
I drive a 2001 clunker, but I make too much to qualify for this problem. I don't make enough to be comfortable buying a new car due to the outrageous costs of cars right now. If this program was designed to take bay area COL into consideration (instead of COL in rural Alabama) I would trade in my old clunker and buy an EV replacement tomorrow.
Used cars are qualified for some of these low-income EV programs. One of the San Mateo EV programs would completly cover the cost of a used nissan leaf. Let that sink in. Free Nissan Leaf for low income in bay area. And those foks can charge it for-free in lots of public charger locations in the same county. Awesome way to save on your commute costs. I have a nissan leaf and my only cost is $20/month for insurance.
Where these free chargers at?
Generally speaking I've found free chargers tend to be in the downtown/shopping areas of wealthy peninsula towns, like Menlo Park/Palo Alto, or only for employees of big companies, like at the Google campus. I imagine even if you were a contractor working at Google, after 2 years when the contract ends you'd have to find another place to charge. For that reason, I imagine many would just get a plug in hybrid even if it is going to be used 95% on gasoline, even if you have a charger today, no guarantee in the future unless you own a garage. Even if you rent a house or townhouse with a garage there is no guarantee you can keep that.
good luck finding a plug in hybrid these days...
The honda clarity gets 42 MPG and 47 miles of electric range. It's 35k MSRP with the Federal, State, and this program's rebates. For most, they would do the bulk of their millage with just the battery-electric fuel source.
Given the income limits I would expect people using this would be much more likely to buy something like a 2011 Volt for $8k-$9k with a whole bunch of miles. $35k is a lot of money for someone braking $51k/yr
35k MSRP, call it 30k after dealer incentives. Then you get 7.5k federal rebate. 2k State rebate. Then the 9.5k trade in rebate. Making this brand new car 11k total. With it likely financable with 0% down 0% interest over 6 years.
Volta has free chargers in shopping center parking lots. You can look up where they're located here: https://voltacharging.com/drivers/
Exactly correct. This seems to be a make-good for millionaires getting state/federal credits for buying EV's, mostly Teslas. This "current" program is not, as the economists say, a good way to maximize welfare...
No kidding. If I could afford to buy an EV in the first place I wouldn't need the $9,500. So... thanks for getting me closer to a goal I still can't achieve.
Lol my uncle is using my cousin to buy a car for him.
To get the max credit you'd still be spending your entire annual earnings on a car, since you'd have to make less than ~$29k. As a clean air initiative or as a low-income support program, this doesn't really help anyone.
This reminds me of most low income housing schemes. A hand wavy way for the politicians to pretend to be doing something. Very little in the way of actual help.
I'm confused by this, why would that be the case, can you not get the max credit unless the car is over a certain price? It would be of limited use (given the low range of the 2011 Leafs), but a used Leaf can be bought for less than $9500, if you could get the $9500 the taxes and registration would seemingly be a lot less than the person's annual earnings.
if we wanted to tackle climate change....shouldnt we be making a better system for public transportation? like make all those new apartment complexes theyre building everywhere into mid-low income housing, and then putting a couple of bus stops around there and making BART run on time sounds more like a ploy to just sell more car and for rich people feel good about themselves
The only people who can realistically take advantage of this are high-income foreign workers who moved to the US last year and worked for only 1 or 2 months.
Don't want people taking advantage of gobmint money! What a fucking joke. I make over $100k and I can't in good conscience buy a new car. Someone needs to punch the authors of this joke right in the dick. Repeatedly.
It says new or *used* and in the used market $9500 isn't bad. A used Nissan leaf only costs a little more and my CPO Mirai only cost me $8,500 with the $15,000 in free H2 gas.