California has been selected as one of the states to participate in the DOE sponsored EV Project. With that honor they will get first choice on the Nissan Leaf 100% electric vehicle due out in December. That means zero emissions. The fact that California has a great electric charging infrastructure already in place helped out a lot. States southern states like Louisiana shockingly have zero electric vehicle charging stations. That's not good if your state plans to get anything out of the green economy. I guess Louisiana's Republican governor hasn't learned much from his peer in California.
So what do California Leaf buyers and a few other states get out of this deal with the government. They get some pretty darn good government subsidies to buy an electric vehicle. The Leaf goes for 30k, Nissan Leaf buyers get a $7500 federal tax credit and Californians are eligible for an additional $5,000 rebate through the state Air Resources Board. That brings California buyers to about $20k for a new electric vehicle that costs pennies on the kilowatt to drive. When smart grid technology catches up those savings will get even better.
Nissan has a early order program going on for the Leaf. They've already signed up close to 25% of the cars due out in December on the program.
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