By Maria Saporta
When it comes driving electric vehicles, Georgia has been on the leading edge.
So naturally we needed to put our low-polluting cars in reverse and adopt the worst package for electric vehicles in the country.
Thank you, Georgia legislature.
When the General Assembly finished its session on April 2, it could boast that it has done more to suppress the adoption of electric vehicles than any other state legislature in Georgia’s past.
Not only did it decide to kill the $5,000 tax credit to support the purchase of electric vehicles, it added a $200 annual registration fee for all alternative-fuel vehicles (natural gas, propane and electric).
“What a bruising session – I’m licking my wounds,” Don Francis, executive director of the Partnership for Clean Transportation Inc., to people attending the monthly Sustainable Atlanta Roundtable at Southface on April 3. “Georgia has gone from being one of the leaders for incentives to having the highest fee in the country by double.”
Go Georgia – we have managed to go from being among the best to the worse in just one legislative session.
Francis says only five states have an annual registration fee for electric vehicles (EV) – charging $100 – and Georgia decided to double the electric vehicle surcharge.
Forget the enlightened position that it is in the best interest for our state to promote the use of electric vehicles. We in Georgia will now punish the people buying cars that can use clean energy alternatives.
“The most distressing part of the whole event is that the tax credit elimination provides no funding for transportation,” Francis said.
At one time, the thought had been that the EV fee could go to funding transit around the state. But instead all those fees are going into the state’s General Fund – a move that Francis believes will actually will cost the state money in lost sales.
“The incentives for electric vehicles generated revenue for the state,” said Francis, who added that it was Rep. Chuck Martin (R-Alpharetta) who was determined to do what he could to making the electric vehicle more expensive to drive than a gas-guzzling SUV.
Mayor Kasim Reed, speaking to the Rotary Club of Atlanta Monday, touted Georgia’s standing in the electric vehicle market.
“Last year, we were No. 1 in America in the sale of the Nissan Leaf and No. 3 for electric vehicles,” Reed said while listing the environmental and sustainability successes of Atlanta and the state.
After his speech, Reed was asked how he felt about the state legislature taking away the $5,000 EV tax credit and adding the $200 annual registration fee.
“We need to monitor it,” Reed said. “I think the city and the region has made the shift to electric vehicles. If we see a softening of that, we may have to return to the legislature.”
Other states are offering attractive tax credits for people buying electric cars. Colorado offers a $6,000 tax credit. California has both state and local incentives. Even Texas, which has a state economy that is largely dependent on the oil industry, is offering a generous tax credit for EVs.
“We were one of the best states, and now we’re the worse,” Francis said. “We can’t stand being No. 2. We want to be 49. When it comes to (incentives), we are now the worst in the country.”
In other words, Francis said Georgians have been able to lease a Nissan LEAF at almost no charge because of the tax credits. The reason why these incentives were introduced in the first place was to try to level the playing field so that people buying electric cars would get an offset for adopting a more expensive technology that would actually be good for the environment and our quality of life.
And it was a policy that was working.
Jeffrey Cohen, founder and CEO of the Atlanta Electric Vehicle Development Coalition, said that at the end of 2014, there were 16, 349 electric vehicles registered in Georgia.
And the adoption of electric cars in Georgia had been super-charged. In 2014, 10,500 electric vehicles were bought in Georgia or 2.3 percent of all new vehicles sold in the state.
“That made us the No. 2 state in the country based on registrations,” said Cohen, who believes the Georgia Legislature’s actions will kill that momentum. “My prediction is that that will drop down to the national average, which is less than 1 percent of all vehicles sold.”
What is so strange is that electric vehicles and alternative fuel cars have strong supporters – the Georgia Power Co., AGL Resources and the growing number of electric car owners.
And Tesla Motors, which had been made some great inroads in Georgia, is certain to be hurt by the removal of the electric vehicle tax credit couple with the $200 annual registration fee.
So now Georgia has done it again.
We’ve gone from a platform where we proudly could claim to be a national leader and decided to dive head first to the bottom – a place where most of our state legislators feel right at home.
This is sad. I feel bad for the people who have these cars & thought we were in a great state for electric
Don’t put it past Georgia to find the worst possible way to support transportation investment – attack electric vehicles – won’t produce all that much revenue and stifles an important new direction in transportation – gotta love our policy makers…
Tom Weyandt we are on a roll. Thanks for reading. Britton Edwards it’s too bad for those folks looking for a tax incentives: “Georgia has gone from being one of the leaders for incentives to having the highest fee in the country by double”
In a state where federal funding makes up a whopping 51% of the DOT budget and the Federal Highway Trust Fund is on the verge of insolvency, the remaining ~44% of GDOT roads, bridges and highways are financed by motor vehicle fuel taxes, so Georgia simply cannot afford this poorly structured tax credit in the long term. The newly added $200 annual registration fee is simply just requiring EV owners to help pay for the infrastructure they were previously using free-of-charge.
But the real, 5-10 year problematic outlook with EVs, at least in metro Atlanta, is induced demand. As the supply of a good increases, more of the good is consumed; and cheap, easily accessible EVs are no different. They will only increase the Atlanta area’s suburban sprawl and exacerbate traffic congestion into, out of and within the City. And this is the problem with cars in the first place, electric, hybrid or not: they create the illusion that each individual can seek his or her own benefit at the expense of everyone else.
So, let’s quit arguing over useless tax breaks for cars and think more strategically, with a longer-term perspective that focuses more time, money, attention and resources in our state legislature toward building, designing and encouraging smart growth communities dedicated to walking, biking and access to more public transit.
If electric vehicles were truly cost effective, then taxpayer subsidies would be unnecessary. The fact that hefty subsidies are necessary to boost sales speaks for itself.
One might suppose I would be a prime candidate for an electric vehicle. I drive 8000 miles per year, mainly commuting to work. But my 2007 Toyota Corolla gets me around very cheaply at about $42/month for fuel. I bought it five years ago for $13,300 and it’s worth half of that now. My ad valorem tax is $114/year. So my average monthly cost is only $163 (closer to “almost free” than a Leaf) and drops every month – with no subsidy from my fellow taxpayers.
As the owner of an EV/Gas hybrid I feel the need to weigh in. Importantly, gas taxes supporting road projects are an essential part of our state funding mechanism and should be supported universally. I assure you I was contributing more than $200 bucks a year driving my 15mpg suv, so am more than ok paying an annual user fee to use our state managed highway system. Wish my fee was earmarked as I know that money will now go to subsidizing my rich buddies’ kid’s college education. As a guy that drives 50% more than the average driver all over the South I appreciate Georgia’s infrastructure and want it to continue to keep up with demand (and expand on holiday weekends on I-75 at Hampton). Bring on the $200 solution.
The technology offered in my car allows daily commutes on battery power and longer trips using gas to generate electricity so I never fill up in town and only purchase gas out of the metro – moving my emissions to lightly populated areas 40 miles outside the metro. That combination strategy improves metro air quality while allowing me virtually free daily commute as it relates to fuel expense. Beyond fuel I have had one trip to the dealer for an oil change in 15,000 miles and the oil was only 60% used. Brock, you’re missing much of the cost of operation not to mention the convenience factor of never visiting a service station. The state subsidy sped adoption of this mode of transportation but was a non event in my decision with a sticker of plus $80k. I do believe the subsidy may have been too high but frankly it’s in Atlanta’s best interest to have a critical mass of users so that Georgia Power and others can justify building infrastructure (although if managed well infrastructure is unnecessary for the average user’s experience) and facilitate adoption that is in the metro area’s best interest.
The most important incentive as far as I’m concerned is that I am no longer sending a weekly love letter to ISIS. Our legislators apparently enjoy funding those who would like to wipe us from the face of the earth. Or maybe they’re more beholden to the oil lobby and the dealership service lobby than the utilities. Hmmmm…..
Having now owned an EV there will never be another time in my life when I don’t have access to one. The subsidy plays no role in that decision and I know others will come to the same conclusion based the experiences of owners.
Jackson Houk: If anything GA Power wants to avoid building more infrastructure because it’s really expensive and costs ROI for their shareholders …their efforts for EVs are to encourage behavioral changes in how EVs are charged during less expensive, off peak demand hours in the middle of the night because it costs them less in generation, transmission and distribution costs to supply for that demand.
The subsidy should have been discontinued for a number of reasons, one of which is that the state shouldn’t be subsidizing $90k Teslas for wealthy people to drive on roads and highways that they weren’t paying for. Metro Atlanta has enough traffic in the City from OTP drivers who refuse transit solutions like MARTA, the EV subsidy exacerbates that problem and presents no solution. EVs are a fad and a waste of time. Get with the rest of the developed world and build transit, trains and walkable communities so we don’t waste time on these arguments.
wadams1 ….you seem angry. OTP drivers? Illogical argument. Study your history of Atlanta before speaking.
letmesaythis Not angry, just passionate and perhaps frustrated at the status quo…
If you’re commuting from the suburbs into the City of Atlanta and aren’t taking MARTA or have refused to finance its expansion (Cobb/Gwinnett), you should be required to pay congestion pricing to offset the negative unintended consequences of driving in the City: wasted time, money, increase in accidents, more police, more roads, more highways, higher mortality rates, more smog, pollution, etc. inside the City of Atlanta. EVs exacerbate all of these problems by making driving cheaper and more accessible. NYC, SFO, Chicago, London, et al…every major city does this and Atlanta should as well. Use the money to finance public transit, the Beltline and MARTA.
Lost in many of the comments is that the EV credit was created to help usher in clean vehicles in order for the state to continue to qualify for federal transportation dollars. Due to our many terrible smog days, the region becomes less eligible for certain funds. This has been omitted from nearly every article being written about the EV credit.
As an EV owner, not leasee, all of this is annoying. The credit should have never been made for leases as it gamed the system, or it should have been doled out in smaller dollars. If you lease an EV, the $5000 comes right off the top and paid to the dealer. If you purchase an EV, you are qualified to get the $5000, but it acts as a rebate of state income tax money that you have contributed and it carries for five years. So, say that you didn’t put in 5k the first year in state income tax, then you have the next four to claim the rest.
For some reason, Rep. Martin of Alpharetta has been obsessed with killing the EV credit. I wonder who’s bankrolling his campaigns? Now that’s been accomplished and we have a “user fee” rather tax that the creator of it admits he simply came up with in thin air. Studies show that the average EV owner isn’t paying $85 a year in transportation fund taxes, so $100 would have been reasonable even though we are paying taxes on the electricity. Not in Georgia though, we end up with the fee doubled than the highest other states and the money isn’t earmarked for transportation. Another joke of a legislative session.
EricCohen Thank you for setting the record straight. We always can make better decisions and become better advocates when we have accurate and thoughtful information at our disposal.
wadams1 You seemed half-credible until you said EVs are a fad. I also notice some people get all egalitarian (“don’t subsidize luxury cars”) when conservative sacred cow like oil&gas are under threat. Those sacred cows are in the long term a threat to sacred human life unless substantially reduced.
One thing that I find a little misleading is that in all of the stories that Don Francis is quoted in or in any op-ed of his that is published it’s never listed that his full time job is business development for company that supplies electric charging equipment! I think it’s important to know that vested interest.
mariasaporta Lost in many of the comments is the failure to understand that GDOT gets 51% of its funding from the Federal Highway Trust Fund, which is insolvent and has no money, so creating an EV tax credit to quality for more money that doesn’t exist so more people can drive on roads and highways they aren’t paying for (the other half of GDOT is funded through a far too low gas tax) is a summation of how inept Georgia, its politicians and this subsidy truly are…
Furthermore, using that federal funding to incentivize the purchase of EVs disproportionately puts the burden of financing the rest of the crumbling GDOT infrastructure on gas-powered cars through the increased fuel tax, which is unsustainable at only 44% of the annual GDOT budget.
Again, this poorly structured tax credit and unsustainable GDOT budget proves we need a greater vision and to look ahead, past a car-centric lifestyle, especially in Atlanta, to compete economically for jobs and industries that are being created by younger generations who want fewer and fewer cars, more walkability, more transit, more bikeable communities…and certainly not a suburban lifestyle that caters to useless EV subsidies that do nothing more than exacerbate the status quo of traffic and gridlock.
wadams1 You have no idea what you’re talking about with respect to your comment that GPC does not want to invest in infrastructure. GPC announced several MONTHS ago that it is investing several million dollars to the installation of EVSE chargers throughout the state.
Currently slated for this year are 12 service locations at Georgia Power Company offices throughout the northern half of the state. This will include many cities well outside of Atlanta proper, including Savannah, Columbus, Athens, Macon.
Phase 2 and 3 of this project (2016-17) will add an additional 50 charging sites. Each site will have at least one Level 3 (DCQC – CHAdeMO and SAE Combo) and between 4-8 Level 2 EVSE devices to which ANY EV may use. NONE of the devices will be free, so anyone thinking that GPC is giving away free charging can stand down. All chargers will cost a fee to use them and this money will go right back into the upkeep and support of their EV driving program.
@EricCohen The $5000 state credit does not go to the dealership, so let’s get the right information out there. The Federal EV Tax Credit of $7500 (which is still in effect until a number of 250K EV’s are sold in the USA) the dealerships on leasing take the credit since they still effectively own the vehicle, so this does help drop the initial price of the car. The $5000 state credit was given to the lessee to take over the course of up to 5 years. But here’s something that you did not mention, the tax credit is only of value to those who have this much in tax liability over the 5 year period (or portion there of). Even if you bought an EV directly the state credit went to the owner, not the dealership.
As for the comments about the EV supplements, most owners do their charging at home during the nighttime hours. EV owners therefore do have higher electric bills and therefore are still paying an increase in STATE TAX on the services provided. That additional tax revenue goes to the state of Georgia, so although it might not go to fund the roads and bridges, it still is money paid to the state for other programs, so there’s no “FREE RIDE” for anyone. Have you ever considered what the federal AND state subsidies on petrol are? Let’s take those away from ICE drivers and see what people think when gas shoots right back to well over $6.00 a gallon?
@Britton Edwards Don’t feel bad for us EV owners (we own 2 BTW), we like saving money a huge amount of money of never (well almost never) having to buy petrol (except for the lawn mover 🙂 )
Yes, it is sad that the state of Georgia is going backwards in the way of certain things. Here the state is one of the largest IT and Technology employers in the country, yet to encourage growth in certain areas the funding needed is being eliminated.
There were other tax incentive proposals made and encouraged by the EV Club of the South, that would reduce the state incentive from $5K to $3K for BEV’s and would now offer $1500 for PHEV (Volt, Prius Plug-in Hybrid, Ford Focus Hybrid). This plan would have been for an additional 5 years to continue with the encouragement of the transition to EV driving. Georgia has one of the worst air qualities in the USA and this is due in part to the huge number of single rider commuters on Georgia highways every day for morning and evening rush hours and it will continue to get worse and worse. No one in Georgia wants to take mass transit, because face it MARTA is terrible outside of the perimeter of the city (and even inside it’s limited). I would graciously take a train everyday to work if I could, but there is no train that goes out to Duluth.
KeithDeininger I’m referring to multi-billion dollar generation investments (Vogtle, coal fire plants, ultra expensive peaker plants, etc) required to supply for the electricity demand in one of the fastest growing regions in the United States; not just charging stations that cost less $/kWh in the middle of the night.
KeithDeininger Keith, you’re in Duluth…Gwinnett (along with Cobb County) has denied MARTA expansion since the 1970s, so your lack of MARTA access is you and your neighbor’s fault. And just remember, as nice as I’m sure it is to not have to buy gas, everyone else who does is allowing you to drive on Georgia roads and highways for free. —> Which is the problem with the EV subsidy in the first place: it creates the illusion that each individual can seek his or her own benefit at the expense of everyone else.
When you live in a county that’s vehemently denied MARTA expansion for decades, don’t complain about not having train access and also don’t complain about no longer receiving tax benefits for cars you’re using to drive on roads you weren’t paying for to begin with.
wadams1 KeithDeininger How exactly is it Keith’s fault that MARTA isn’t available in Gwinnett? He doesn’t have access, it isn’t available, and all the common sense in the world tells us that we’ll never see significant rail infrastructure outside of what is already existing. We are also paying taxes on the electricity that we pay, so it’s not like we aren’t being taxed. You should take up your further qualms with the legislature because us EV owners are now paying a tax that far exceeds the average driver’s tax bill on gasoline and NONE of the funds that we are paying are earmarked for transportation, rather, they’re going into the general fund.
You continue to miss the piece of the puzzle as to why the EV subsidy was created and Keith alluded to it: The EV credit was created because we have so many hazardous air quality days, the area was at risk of not receiving federal government transportation dollars. It’s that simple. You seem to fail to understand that there are inherent risks or limitations that most EV drivers have particularly with regard to range of driving.
I paid a nearly 9k premium on my vehicle to purchase the electric version instead of the ICE model. I would have done so with or without the Georgia tax credit, but the reality is that most wouldn’t. We need mass adoption of EVs and the batteries continue to fall in price, but an incentive is very helpful to many. In order to have the volume of vehicles to make a difference on the road, it means that every day people buy these vehicles, not the few that are paying for a Tesla. If you give an average driver the choice of two models of a car and the only difference is the type of engine and a difference in price of 9k, it doesn’t take much hard thought as to what the average person will choose.
@RealEVInterests maybe so but Don Francis is NOT preaching electric vehicles out of profit motive. He is the most passionate person in the state about Electric Vehicles. He knows more about Electric Vehicles than probably anyone in the country. It is worth hearing what he has to say. I know him and he is the real deal.
wadams1 No, it’s NOT my fault regarding MARTA as I d not live in the burbs. I live inside the perimeter and take MARTA quite a lot when I can. I grew up in NYC and took the subway and commuter trains everywhere. I’ve travelled overseas and always use mass transit to get around as it is faster and much more efficient. I have travelled all over the US to Chicago, DC, Boston, LA, nearly every major city that has a well run mass transit system where you can get to nearly anywhere without the use of a car.
I’d like to see MARTA install rail lines to Cobb, Gwinnett, Clayton, Forsyth and many other surrounding counties to encourage people to get out of their cars and get onto a train.
The power plants you mentioned GPC has already invested hundreds of millions of dollars in upgrades to the coal plants to help scrub the air that comes out of the exhaust stacks to reduce pollution. They are converting many of the coal plants to use NG. They have also invested hundreds of millions of dollars in Solar Energy farms throughout the state and even some around the country.
And as for your comment about driving a car for free, the notion of people driving EV’s for free might have been the case when the LEAF was first introduced to the Atlanta market where some specific Nissan dealerships chose to sell the cars below the amount one would receive during the incentive period was THEIR choice not the purchaser. The person buying or leasing the car had no say in what the dealership would allow. The dealerships took a financial hit too with selling the vehicles at prices of $199/mon. But today most Nissan dealers sell the SL model for well more than $350/mon, plus a sizable down payment and even the S model LEAF now commands a monthly cost of around $280/mon with a sizable down payment too.
Most EV drivers opt to purchase the AFP for their cars to have single driver access rights to the HOV lanes, this is a yearly cost of $85.00. Many of these same drivers spend $35.00 for the Peach Pass for HOT lane access (must have the AFP too to ride for no cost) so right off the bat, EV drivers are spending $120.00 a year which goes directly to the state for road services. Now the legislation wants to add an arbitrary $200 road tax to every EV. EV drivers agree that road upkeep is a necessary evil and the money has to come from someone, but charging more than TWICE what somewho who is driving a gas guzzling SUV or muscle car is INSANE! The road tax should be charged by number of miles driven with a multiplying factor of the weight of the vehicle and the fuel efficiency obtained.
So get your facts straight about the fees and what the majority of EV drivers are truly paying for their cars. People who drive the BMW i3 or Tesla are not getting any sort of free ride nor are people who drive PHEV’s and as I mentioned neither are many LEAF owners.
JBVick In a region already plagued miserably with hugely expensive traffic congestion and suburban sprawl, I will never understand this obsession with electric vehicles. If you’re charging one in the US, 40% of the charge is coming from coal, 30% is coming from natural gas, 20% is coming from nuclear and 10% is coming from a mix of hydro, biogas and renewables…and only 1/10 of 1% is coming from solar energy…and the battery itself is lithium, one of the most environmentally unsustainable and destructive mining operations on earth, far worse than coal.
Finally and forth millionth time yet again, we need to think LONG TERM here in Atlanta, this EV subsidy is a waste of time; why not subsidize trains, street cars and mass transit, and more walkable/bikeable cities…not traffic-clogging, unsafe and inefficient, singular modes of transportation that are decreasing our quality of life.
JBVick That’s kinda the point. He’s PAID to know a lot about EVs and as the business development manager of a company that sells charging equipment he stood to benefit GREATLY if the credit stayed on the books and lasted another FIVE years. And so did his previous employer Georgia Power. There are so many people out there who talk about the nasty oil companies or other “special interests” and they can’t see that the same thing is happening right in front of them. Regardless of the “virtue” of the product it’s the same song. The businesses that stood to gain from the expansion of an EV market are the one’s pushing it and they use the environmental groups (and in this case Don Francis is in a key position to do so) to give them cover. Substitute Don Francis and Clean Cities in every one of these articles for the Business Development Manager at Georgia Power and the story is a bit different isn’t it?
These comments about energy sources for electric cars are from people that have an agenda, or just don’t know what they are talking about. You hear them talk about dirty energy sources to charge batteries, but they never talk about how much power it takes to refine a gallon of gasoline or where THAT power comes from.
It takes between 4 and 7.5 killowatt hours of electricity to refine one gallon of gasoline.
A typical electric car could drive 24 miles on the power needed to just refine one gallon of gasoline.
That means that even without accounting for all the other electricity and fuel required to extract, transport and pump your gallon of gas – electric cars use the same amount of electricity as a gasoline powered car that gets 24 mpg.
Look at the big picture when you make arguments about electric cars and energy sources. Gas powered cars pump out CO2 and use electricity – and lots more of it when you account for all the steps in the manufacture and transport of gasoline.
mtavel hey i’m certainly not advocating for gas powered cars over electric vehicles at all. and have zero agenda, aside from making investments in real transportation infrastructure: in transit, walkable, bikeable and more liveable communities…not subsidized cars for faux-environmentalists looking for a government hand out to continue clogging up roads and highways they aren’t even really paying for in a state with an unsustainable transportation infrastructure based on crumbling roads and highways.
wadams1 mtavel I bet you could make a good argument for transit, walkable, bikeable and livable communities without making false comparisons with omitted facts.
mtavel wadams1 mtavel look, here’s your comparison with more facts and comparisons you’d ever be willing consider:
all of the roads you want to drive on in your electric vehicle in the state of georgia are 51% subsidized through an already bankrupt federal government program: the highway trust fund. the feds have only kept it afloat by borrowing from state budgets because the federal fuel tax of 18c/gallon isn’t enough to keep it going. the other 44% of the GDOT budget comes from state gas taxes….which no EVs are helping to fund….yet.
so right now essentially, you have the state government creating an EV tax credit to qualify for more federal money (from a fund that’s spending far more than it takes in) so you can drive on roads, bridges and highways you aren’t even paying for.
so…the entire EV tax credit is a ponzi scheme and is unsustainable at scale and in the mid-to-long-term, considering future population growth. anyone who thinks otherwise hasn’t read the state gdot budget or can’t do math. and knowing this is georgia, probably both.
so again, my point is that, in regards to developing more progressive transportation here, at least in the atlanta area, EVs are a stepping stone we can step over if we focus more time, money and resources into planning, designing and building more walkable, bikeable and transit oriented communities…that are not only healthier, but safer and more sustainable than providing an infrastructure centered around driving.
so, to close: as a driver in georgia you have, essentially, two different choices:
a) be willing to pay at least 30-40 cents in fed. taxes per gallon to make the HTF sustainable in the long-term, or
b) be willing to pay a $300-400 a year to support GDOT infrastructure in your EV.
or…
c) be wiling to support transportation infrastructure NOT centered on driving to create more transit-oriented sustainable and livable communities.
there’s your true comparison with no omitted facts. and if you don’t believe it, you haven’t done enough research, sorry.
But Gov. Raw Deal and his donors are making money- big money. What could be wrong with that?
EricCohen Slight correction to your post: The Federal Tax credit is taken off the top by the dealer in a lease. The $5000 GA tax rebate has to be filed by the taxpayer and you have to have enough taxable income to at least match the rebate amount to get the full benefit.