Boeing develops new photocells that significantly boost efficiency
http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/27/boeings-spectrolab-subsidiary-set-to-…
Solar light bulbs
http://www.nokero.com/
Volt’s official epa mileage sticker
http://money.cnn.com/2010/11/24/autos/chevy_volt_epa_label/index.htm
Volt charging, low and slow
http://wardsauto.com/ar/no_gm_questions_101123/index.html
rush limbaugh, still a dick
http://blogs.motortrend.com/rush-judgment-5957.html
CityCar, too small?
http://streetsblog.net/2010/11/18/is-this-battery-powered-subcompact-the…
Tesla stock has now doubled since the IPO
http://electrovelocity.com/2010/11/29/tesla-shares-value-doubled-since-ipo/
Harmony commercial honored at year end’s best ads
http://tanyalesieur.posterous.com/toyota-prius-harmony-tv-commercial-fea…
here’s the line up of who won
http://www.commarts.com/annuals/2010-Advertising/winners
Shoutout to Randy Mays for being kind enough to send a great explanation on CARB versus feed guidelines for tax credits. We will post this to what drives dot us for everyone to read.
(Here’s Randy’s email in part)
Not sure whether it was ep 38 or 39, but some discussion of tax credits for plug ins (which for our purposes include PHEVs and EVs) came up. Linda, SULEV and ULEV are CARB designations, not relevant for Federal law. There are some “clean” qualifiers for eligible vehicles based on the Federal classification system: Tier II Bin 5 i.e., “Average” for vehicles < 6,000 lbs GVW and Bin 8 for vehicles between 6,000 lbs and 8,500 lbs. Bin 8 is too dirty for me to drive in good conscience, btw.
The current tax credit for buyers of plug-in vehicles was part of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, commonly known as TARP, which was signed into law by President Bush on Oct. 3, 2008. PL 110-343.
Here is the entire law:
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=110_cong_publi…
The energy provisions are in Division B, titled “DIVISION B—ENERGY IMPROVEMENT AND EXTENSION ACT OF 2008”. The relevant section is Title II, Sec. 205.
Here are excerpts:
‘‘(2) APPLICABLE AMOUNT.—For purposes of paragraph (1),
the applicable amount is sum of—
(A) $2,500, plus
(B) $417 for each kilowatt hour of traction battery capacity in excess of 4 kilowatt hours….”
If you do the math for what was then known about the Volt’s 16 kWh battery, it turns out that $2,500 + $417 * (16-4) = $7,504 or pretty close to $7,500. Not a coincidence. The credit is capped at $7,500 for vehicles weighing less than 10,000 lbs.
If you continue reading this section, you’ll see that the credit cap goes up to $10,000 for plug-ins with GVW 10,000-14,000 lbs.; $12,500 for plug-ins with GVW 14,000-26,000 lbs and $15,000 for plug-ins with GVW over 26,000 lbs.
The credit begins to phase out after 250,000 qualifying vehicles are put into service after Dec. 31, 2008. Should still be around in late 2011 or 2012 when my priority reserved Leaf might be available in Wisconsin.
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