Are Tax Incentives Reason Enough to Buy EVs?

The electric vehicle tax credit program began in December of 2009, with the first 200,000 EVs sold by OEMs eligible for up to $7500 in credit based on the battery capacity. It took about a decade before GM and Tesla passed the 200,000 unit mark in 2019. Now, Biden’s American Jobs Plan promises to beat China to control of the EV market by incentivising with a new wave of credits and a flood of half a million new charging stations. 

According to Politico, an email the U.S. Transportation Department sent to congressional staff said the $174 billion proposal to boost EVs calls for $100 billion in new customer rebates and $15 billion to build 500,000 new EV charging stations. The new federal incentives are promising – with EVs already gaining momentum in the US and likely to experience another boom. But do these incentives make purchasing EVs for your fleet worth it? If you’ve used business intelligence tools, like our platform for example, and taken appropriate  right-sizing actions, then you should have been able to identify whether or not EVs are right for your fleet. If they are,  then it could be a worthwhile initiative to pursue – especially as, depending on your state, you can take advantage of multiple tax credit programs. 

That’s right, EV tax credits are at the state and local level too, not just the federal level. Here’s a list of vehicles that qualify for credits as well as how much they qualify for. 

What kinds of tax credits and rebates are out there?

1. Qualified Plug-In Electric Vehicle Tax Credit

As previously mentioned, this plan went into action in 2009. When people are talking about how EVs can get a tax credit up to $7500 depending on their battery, this is what they’re talking about.

2. Alternative Fuel Infrastructure Tax Credit

If you want to incentivise EVs, it only makes sense that there should be help when purchasing new charging stations as well. The alternative fuel infrastructure tax credit can take care of 30 percent of the cost of a new charging station.

3. State Incentives for EV Fleets

Tax credits aren’t just federal. Depending on your state of operation, most have at least some EV tax credit or rebate programs available. There’s a complete list of all state’s incentives for EVs at the National Conference of State Legislatures’ website. 

How do I get the most out of EV Incentives?

EVs are the future of the fleet industry. Because of this, it pays to have a complete understanding of the EVs you choose to purchase. The tax credits can help offset the price, but they won’t matter if your drivers are inefficient or if you don’t accurately judge the range of the EVs when planning your routes. These will prove to be massive cost sinks over time – if the telematics data from similar issues for ICE vehicles is reliable. Which, it is.

To get the most out of EVs, incentives and all, you need to utilize telematics and business intelligence. Most EVs already come with OEM telematics boxes preinstalled, and it pays to invest in a technology layer that sits on top of your data to help you make the most of it.

Utilimarc’s business intelligence platform works with your data to analyze it and present it to you all on one dashboard. Your fleet’s data alone isn’t enough to make educated decisions based on industry trends, but with Utilimarc’s huge data pool of some of the biggest fleets in the country, the patterns become clear. Suddenly, owning EVs doesn’t seem outlandish, in fact, it might be  more profitable than you’d think.

Schedule a demo of our platform with a member of our analytics team to learn about how electric vehicles can work for your fleet.

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