Sustainability

Everybody’s getting into the act

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When The Real Story asked Marc Geller from Plug In America about what consumers can look forward to in electric vehicles coming to market, he provided a short list of some of the most-talked about models—the Nissan Leaf, the Chevrolet Volt (which is actually a hybrid) and Tesla’s luxury brand. Better than that, he gave us the web address for an extraordinarily comprehensive vehicle tracker of all of the makes and models currently in production for deliveries in 2010, 2011 and beyond—www.pluginamerica.org/vehicles.

The list, which includes pictures of all of the vehicles outlined, runs on for eight pages. What is surprising about the list is how many of the major car companies are planning to deliver a plug-in or hybrid plug-in vehicle in the very short term: Toyota, Saab, Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Volkswagen, Mitsubishi and Volvo are on the list. So are the American auto companies: Ford, Chevrolet, GM. Luxury car-maker Rolls Royce is on the list, as is Daimler. And for Francophiles, Peugeot and Citroen. The list includes the size of the vehicle, its proposed price (if released), its capacity, and its date of release. The combination of exciting design, affordable (in many cases) pricing, and real utility takes the conversation about plug-in vehicles from the interesting to the important.

Advice from Marc: A tax credit on “infrastructure improvements” will be expiring at the end of 2010. Even if your new car isn’t going to deliver until 2011, take advantage of the incentive, and get your charging station and electrical upgrades done now.

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