Electric cars get charge from stimulus

[Greyskye]

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2009/autos/0902/gallery.electric_car_credits/index.html

New legislation expands tax credits for electric cars to cover smaller, but not bigger, vehicles.
The credits originally would have stopped after they had been claimed on 250,000 vehicles across the whole industry. Now the credits will apply on to up to 200,000 vehicles from any single manufacturer.

The old rules, passed in the fall of 2008, applied only to cars in the traditional sense, i.e., four-wheeled vehicles. Now three-wheeled and even two-wheeled electric vehicles are also eligible. Tax credits for these vehicles are calculated differently and they won't be available until next year.

Good deal. Now you'll be able to get a tax credit for these:


http://www.electricmotorsport.com/store/ems_electric_motorcycles.php



http://www.persumobility.com/



http://www.aptera.com/index.php

[sazemisery]

1. What if you converted your gas powered car to electric?

I am seriously thinking of converting my 1997 Jeep Wrangler to electric. I feel I should get some kinda credit for that.

[Greyskye]

2. It appears that you can do that

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2009/autos/0902/gallery.electric_car_credits/5.html

For converted cars like these, the credit is calculated as 10% of the cost of converting the vehicle - not the entire cost of the vehicle - up to a maximum of $4,000.

The example was from a company that converts cars to electric - you would think that they would have a provision for do-it-yourselfer's.

Consult your tax professional. :D

[tinrobot]

3. Me too....

Been thinking of getting a light 2-seater convertible (Triumph, Alpha Romeo, etc) and converting it. But I want to go with lithium batteries - which cost about $10 grand for enough power and range to be useful. It would be nice to get some sort of credit on the batteries.

[Greyskye]

4. see above n/t

[tinrobot]

5. Cool...

That's good to know.

[wtmusic]

6. Cool.

Some advice: pick a car that has plenty of available parts (the parts of the car you're keeping), as these will wear out long before the electric part does.

Lithium batteries need a serious battery management system (BMS) - you can easily destroy them by overcharging them or running them down too far. There's a guy in Australia who developed a reasonably priced BMS. If you're interested let me know and I'll hunt down the info.

Keep us updated
:thumbsup:

[tinrobot]

7. This guy really inspires me

He converted a Honda 2000 to lithium with a BMS and all that...

http://s2kev.blogspot.com/

Good stuff.

[excess_3]

8. welcome news. n/t