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Harry Reid in favor of $10,000 federal EV tax credit

Harry Reid says the federal government should commit more funds towards incentives for electric-vehicle purchases. We'll wait for readers' shock to sink in. Now, here are the details. The Senate Majority Leader (D-NV) is backing President Barack Obama's efforts to raise federal incentives for EV drivers to $10,000 from $7,500, according to The Detroit News. He's also big on the US Energy Department boosting its vehicle-research budget to help bring down the cost of EVs. Reid notes that Tesla Motors' $5-billion Gigafactory, which will be built near Reno, will provide $100 billion worth of economic value to the state. He also pointed out that Tesla paid off its $465-million loan from the US Energy Department last year, nine years early. There's a way to read this as some sort of quid pro quo for the new battery plant, since Nevada's providing about $1.2 billion (over a 20-year period) in incentives to Tesla and factory-building partner Panasonic and cutting EV prices for the average could help Tesla. But Reid has been speaking out in favor of more green cars for a while. In 2009, he helped promote a bill that would provide more incentives for people driving natural-gas powered vehicles. The year before that, Reid went on record saying that the US needed "a crash course to develop alternative and renewable energy." And in 2007, he called the debate over a more stringent Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standard pointless because, he said, they were a given. News Source: The Detroit NewsImage Credit: J. Scott Applewhite / AP Government/Legal Green Tesla Electric incentives nevada gigafactory harry reid

Connecticut may let Telsa sell EVs directly to customers

Republicans and Tesla lovers unite! Connecticut may become the next state to legalize the direct factory-to-customer distribution method championed by the California-based electric vehicle maker. And that's because one state senator had to drive a little too far to get his new rig. Republican Senator Art Linares was forced to drive to White Plains, NY, to buy his Model S (those senators get paid well, don't they) because Connecticut has just one showroom in the state, and no sales are allowed, Green Car Reports says. Linares, of course, says catching flack from the state's dealership association is worth the trouble because of the new jobs he says Tesla dealerships would bring. Connecticut has been close to the leading edge of electric-vehicle promotion, though still hasn't joined states like New York, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, Pennsylvania in allowing for Tesla to employ its distribution model. Last March, the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) started a new promotion called the "Connecticut Revolutionary Dealer Award, in which dealers were provided state incentives to sell electric vehicles. And last May, Connecticut became one of eight states (led by California) that were named part of the Multi-State ZEV Action Plan. Those states, which also included Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island and Vermont, vowed to collectively have 3.3 million zero-emission vehicles (ZEV) on their roads by 2025. Featured Gallery Tesla Model S View 10 Photos News Source: Green Car Reports via Clean Technica, Transport EvolvedImage Credit: AP Photo / Al Behrman Green Tesla Electric ev sales dealer fight connecticut

Recharge Wrap-up: Renovo Coupe at CES, Aussies tour US in Tesla Model S

Australians review the Tesla Model S in a Seattle to LA road trip video. The folks from CarAdvice drive the P85+ along the West Coast of the US, testing out the car, trying the Superchargers, stopping by some notable sites along the way and even making use of roadside assistance. While the video shows what it's like to take the Tesla on a US road trip, it gives viewers Down Under a glimpse of their own future. Tesla just began sales in a country that, while on the other side of the globe, also features long distances between cities and a new Supercharger network. Check out the video below or read more at Inside EVs. A UK taxi company is introducing the Nissan e-NV200 to its fleet. C&C Taxi, which has been using six Nissan Leafs in its Cornwall taxi service since early December, has added the passenger-ready e-NV200 Combi to its stable of cabs. Mark Richards, manager of C&C's fleet, is happy with its performance and money saved after over 1,000 miles of service so far, and plans to replace the rest of the diesel fleet with EVs. The Nissan e-NV200 Combi "does everything the Leaf does but is much bigger and offers more space," says Richards. "We'll definitely be ordering more." Learn more in the video below or read more at Hybrid Cars. Learn more about Nissan's fleet EVs at the company's website. The US Department of Energy has released a new report on EV charging behavior and its impact on the grid. The report, which covers grant projects from six different utilities, includes data from over 270 public chargers and 700 residential charging units. Most at-home charging took place at night during off-peak hours. There were some reports of problems with chargers and smart meters working together. Most public charging took place during peak hours, but was low compared to home charging. This means a longer cost recovery period due to the high cost of installation. See the report at the DOE website or read more at Green Car Congress. The Renovo Coupe will be on display at the NVIDIA booth at the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) for its first public viewing. Renovo Motors CEO Christopher Heiser says, "These are very exciting times for Renovo and we think our new technology, coupled with NVIDIA's breakthroughs in automotive applications, has the potential to make a tremendous impact across the entire automotive industry." The Shelby Daytona-bodied Renovo offers 500 horsepower and 1,000 pound-feet of torque from two electric motors.