Electric cars gaining a hold of markets is not exactly new news, but for certain markets it is still a surprise. For example, Atlanta, and Georgia at large, is seeing a continued rise in the number of non-gasoline vehicles that are being purchased and registered.
This area has been a bit slower than other to adopt these cars, but we’re now seeing it pass into the mainstream as sales have gone into the tens of thousands. Helping push these sales are tax credits to the tune of $5000 – don’t expect that to last terribly long as it is now costing the states millions of dollars per year!
Electric cars gain a toehold in Atlanta | www.ajc.com The handful of plug-in electric car models available here, led by the Nissan Leaf, has come as a bit of a shock to the Atlanta market. They aren’t underpowered golf cart-like vehicles, for one thing. The coolest and most expensive plug-in, the Tesla Model S, goes from zero to 60 in, well, it was there before you finished reading this. (For the record: 3.2 seconds.)
By the end of 2014, 18,000 to 20,000 all-electric cars will be on the road in Georgia. Although that’s still a relatively minuscule number, it suggests that the vehicles have passed a big milestone: the market has outgrown the hard-core enthusiasts who would have bought the cars no matter what and now takes in people looking for a good deal.
And such a deal it is: some people who lease the Nissan Leaf find that, between the state’s $5,000 tax credit for electric cars and the savings on gasoline, the monthly cost of the lease comes out roughly to zero. (Fair warning: the tax credit cost the state $13.6 million in 2013 and may be much more expensive in 2014 because of greater sales of electric vehicles; the credit was nearly repealed earlier this year, and a state legislator has it in his sights again for 2015.)
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