Yesterday California's Air Resources Board (ARB) announced a new rebate program, the Clean Vehicle Rebate Program. The program comes with a list of approved vehicles that is curiously short. On the one hand if they had waited a few months to launch the program more electric vehicles are supposed to be available (such as the Volt and Coda) but on the other hand some existing vehicles on the market are not on the list. It's causing some to ask what's up with that.
While preparing yesterdays report on this program, this writer asked an ARB spokesperson about a couple of the missing vehicles, and more importantly read the "implementation manual" for the program. This manual lists the requirements for a manufacturer to participate in the rebate program.
These conspicuously absent vehicles include the following, some of which have been on the market for awhile, while others are promised to come to market soon.
- Electric motorcycles from Electric Motorsports, Vectrix, Quantya and Brammo
- Chevy Volt and other plug-in hybrids coming to the market
- Coda's sedan
- Balqon's or Navistar's electric trucks
- Aftermarket plug-in conversions of the Prius and other hybrids
- Three wheelers such as Xebra, Aptera, Triac, etc
A series of e-mail'd questions and answers with an ARB spokesperson yesterday illustrate the requirements. The questions were focused on the electric motorcycles from Electric Motorsports and Brammo but the answers clearly apply to the other vehicles on the list. In short it's a matter of whether the company applied to the program, and whether they meet the requirements to be in the program. "In order to be eligible for a rebate, manufacturers must submit a Vehicle Eligibility Application to ARB to have their vehicles considered."
Section 2.2 of the implementation manual describes eligibility of various classes of vehicles. All of the vehicles listed above meet these eligibility requirements. For example the requirement for electric motorcycles reads: "2.2.4 Zero-Emission Motorcycles (ZEMs) Vehicles in the ZEM category include fully-enclosed zero emission vehicles designed to travel on three wheels and two-wheel electric motorcycles meeting the provisions of CVC section 400 and the ZEM evaluation procedures in Appendix C." Section 2.3 lists other requirements including to be a "new" (not used) vehicle, to be ARB certified, is capable of being operated on the freeway, manufacturer offers a warranty and has a service program. The qualification requirements for electric motorcycles include completing the "Pomona Loop" test which is a nearly 20 mile loop on urban roads which include elevation changes from 900 feet to 1500 feet and back. These requirements do rule out some of the vehicles such as the Xebra (not freeway capable) and some of the others may not have sufficient warranty or service programs.
"Aftermarket plug-in hybrid electric vehicle conversions are not eligible for CVRP funding." In general the program appears to be meant to increase the number of electric vehicles on the road. A sale of a used electric vehicle doesn't increase their total number. It is however a little curious why plug-in hybrid conversions are specifically not eligible as PHEV's are cleaner than HEV's.
The ARB spokesperson did specifically list the status of some of the electric motorcycles. Brammo’s Enertia "will be completing its ZEM evaluation on March 18 and assuming it passes, it will be on the list next week." Asked about Vectrix the most important issue is their bankruptcy and while the new Vectrix corporation has made public announcements it has not demonstrated to ARB they meet warranty requirements. Finally she said that Electric Motorsport had been invited to participate but has not sent in an application.
On a final note research turned up another clean vehicle rebate program in Singapore and it provides an interesting comparison to California's program. On Feb 23 Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam announced their "Green Vehicle Rebate" program will be extended to include used green vehicles. It would mean that "used hybrid cars imported into Singapore" would pay a tax equivalent to 40% of open market value whereas the tax is 100% for petrol-engined vehicles.
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