EV Politics

The European side of LEVA, the Light Electric Vehicle Association, meaning electric bicycles etc, sent me this press release. It seeks to clarify a statement by "the UK trade associations BAGB and MCIA" concerning off-road electric mountain bikes. Apparently they're worried because those bikes are not regulated as are on-road electric bicycles.

I know this is primarily a do-it-yourself dominated 2-wheel forum (mostly Vectrix), but I'd like to learn about other people's experience with dealerships and car salespersons when shopping for a 4-wheel EV in various parts of the USA/Canada/Europe/Australia. So far, in my contacts with a Mitsubishi and a Smart dealer here in Pittsburgh, USA have left me with a distinct impression that dealers are not very interested, or even hostile to selling their electric models.

What have other people's experiences been?

Today, the New Jersey motor vehicles department announced (with no chance for public review or comment) new regulations that effectively stop Tesla Motors from selling cars in New Jersey. The new requirements say all car sales must occur through a franchised dealership. Tesla insists the Model S can only be sold through company-owned stores, but has been facing legal challenges in several states.

You should all like this...

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/ga-man-arrested-charging-electric-car-local-middle/story?id=21098590

He even spent the night in jail...

And to be clear, it is not like there are very many public charging stations in Chamblee, Georgia, USA - probably none.

Did the "Green Revolution" peak a little while ago?

It's hard for me to pinpoint the exact moment when it peaked, but there does seem to be te feeling that the momentum has trailed off.

It seemed to have peaked in the middle of the recession when fear was also peaking.

Was it the Sequester? Once people started thinking the rate of wild spending was slowing it was going to effect subsidies.

Washington State is looking to institute a fine for ICE'ing an electric vehicle charging station.

The bill requires:

• Signage making it clear that it is an electric car charging station, and that access is limited to those who are using the charging station
• A parking fine of $250 for infractions

http://www.longtailpipe.com/2013/03/washington-state-to-fine-gas-car.html

Several states in the U.S. are either implementing or considering adding a tax just for electric cars.

Virginia:- http://www.longtailpipe.com/2013/01/virginia-governor-proposes-eliminating.html
Proposal is to eliminate the gasoline tax, add a new piece of sales tax, and add a tax on electric cars.

There's some news going on currently about U.S. States looking to impose new taxes on electric car owners ...

Washington State electric car tax going into effect in 2013 .. they already passed a law requiring a $100/year additional registration fee for electric cars. Later they plan to shift to a per-mile road usage fee.

There was a long list of provisions that were going to expire on December 31, 2012. Given the huge political mess the last couple weeks, these may have gotten lost in the shuffle. But, instead they were preserved, largely with language in the bill which substituted "December 31, 2013" for the existing expiration dates.

What's important on VisForVoltage is that the electric motorcycle tax credit was extended.

I was given a link to this video from someone at FedEx while I was researching an article for Charged EV's Magazine about electric vehicles in commercial truck fleets. The article went over a set of presentations from FedEx, PG & E and Dow Kokam concerning electric trucks in commercial fleets.