State launches incentive for electric vehicles

PLAINVILLE >> The state is launching a pilot incentive program designed to increase the sale of electric vehicles in Connecticut.

The Connecticut Hydrogen and Electric Automobile Rebate Program will offer cash rebates of up to $3,000 to state residents, businesses and municipalities to purchase or lease up to two electric vehicles. The program will last as long as the $800,000 fund created for the rebates holds out, said Paul Farrell, assistant director of air planning with Connecticut’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.

Depending upon which of the three levels of rebates consumers qualify, the state has set aside enough money to fund cash back for the buyers of between 250 and 450 vehicles, Farrell said. Vehicles eligible for the rebates include fuel cell powered vehicles, plug-in hybrids and battery powered electric vehicles.

Money to fund the rebates is coming from a $1 million settlement that the state reached with Northeast Utilities not to oppose the utility’s merger with NStar in March 2012, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said during a press conference at Crowley Ford in Plainville. Money being applied to the rebate program also includes $200,000 to provide incentives to salespeople at the dealerships that sell electric vehicles.

“This is an exciting day for us,” Malloy said. “What we’re trying to do is clean up our air in Connecticut. We’ve been pretty aggressive on the transportation front.”

Malloy said the rebates will “introduce these vehicles to a much broader audience of folks.”

The rebates will be available in three tiers on a sliding scale that is based upon the battery capacity of the vehicle, Farrell said.

The $3,000 maximum will be available to those consumers who purchase electric vehicles with 18 kilowatt hours of battery capacity or greater. Rebates of $1,500 and $750 will be available to electric vehicles that travel shorter distances on battery power.

Don Strait, president of the New Haven-based Connecticut Fund for the Environment, said the rebates will drive increased demand for electric vehicles, which in turn will drive down the sticker price for them.

Jim Fleming, president of the Connecticut Automotive Retailers Association, said of the 188,000 new cars that were sold in Connecticut last year, electric vehicles “accounted for a very small percentage.”

Ken Crowley, the owner of the New Britain Avenue dealership, said that on a typical month, his salespeople sell an average of three or four electric vehicles a month.

“I think the biggest concern that people have is range,” Crowley said. “An internal combustion vehicle with good mileage can get more than 400 miles (on a tank of gas) and electric vehicles get about 100 miles on a full charge.”

One new care retailer looking to add to the number of electric vehicles sold in Connecticut is Tesla Motors. The retailer has a repair shop in Milford, but can’t use its direct sales model in Connecticut which only allows new car sales to consumers through franchised dealers.

But Tesla reached an agreement several weeks ago with Connecticut Automotive Retailers Association, which had previously opposed allowing direct sales to consumers, said Diarmuid O’Connell, Tesla’s vice president of business development.

“Now, we’re hoping that legislation that will allow direct sales will be approved by Connecticut’s legislature,” O’Connell said. “I’m not in the habit of predicting what legislatures will do, but New Jersey, Georgia and Maryland, which all had laws similar to Connecticut have recently approved direct sales. We think that once people see our cars, they’ll see why electric vehicles are superior to those with internal combustion engines.”

Fleming declined to comment on whether Connecticut’s General Assembly would approve the legislation necessary for Tesla to begin selling cars in the state.

Call Luther Turmelle at 203-680-9388.