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California, Colorado, and New Jersey still have EV purchasing incentives. Because Massachusetts is one of the more progressive states, it’s not surprising incentives are available there too.
The MOR-EV Standard rebate for eligible new EVs is $3,500; the same amount is available for eligible used EVs. The u…
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California, Colorado, and New Jersey still have EV purchasing incentives. Because Massachusetts is one of the more progressive states, it’s not surprising incentives are available there too.
The MOR-EV Standard rebate for eligible new EVs is $3,500; the same amount is available for eligible used EVs. The used rebate is for income-qualified Massachusetts residents.
There is also potentially an additional $1,500 available for new and used eligible EVs for income-qualified residents.
For the income-qualified applicants who are trading in an internal combustion engine vehicle for an EV, there is a potential $1,000 rebate.
For a person who qualifies for all the rebates, the total amount would be $6,000!
With the standard rebate of $3,500, a new Chevy Equinox EV would be just over $30,000, which could be a very good deal for some drivers. A used Chevy Bolt in good condition would be about $15,000 after the $3,500 rebate. For someone who qualified for the full $6,000, it would be just about $13,000.
I’m finding a used Model 3 on the Tesla website for $23,000 — with the $3,500 standard rebate, it would be a bit under $20,000, and with the income-qualified rebate as well, it would be about $18,500. For a person who qualified for the full $6,000 rebate, it would be about $17,500. There are many more electric vehicles eligible for Massachusetts rebates. These are just several examples. (Paul Fosse also just wrote an article about how used Teslas can be leased in a number of states, but Massachusetts did not appear to be one of them.)
Some people are motivated to buy fully electric vehicles because they want to do their part to reduce their environmental footprint. “The plan estimates that more than 3 million Massachusetts residents live in a community expected to experience coastal impacts between now and the end of the century, putting people, as well as significant environmental, cultural, economic and recreational resources, at risk.”
There is another benefit to using fully electric vehicles, which is reducing toxic air pollution that harms people. “Of the 2,780 deaths attributable to air pollution in Massachusetts in 2019, at least 2,185 were due to lung cancer 1,677 to heart disease, 343 to chronic lung disease, and 200 to stroke. Air pollution was responsible for 15,386 cases of pediatric asthma and an estimated 308 low-birthweight babies (5.5 lbs. or less).
“More than 95 percent of air pollution in Massachusetts results from the combustion of fossil fuels. Cars, trucks, buses, planes, trains and ships produced two-thirds of pollutant emissions — 655,000 tons — in 2017, the most recent year for which data were available.”
Burning fossil fuels in gas, diesel, and hybrid vehicles generates toxic air pollution that makes people sick and contributes to premature deaths every year. The liquid fuel that gas, diesel, and hybrid vehicle use is toxic. Too often it is spilled into waterways and on land where it contaminates whatever it touches. It also kills and/or sickens wild creatures and plants. Though, we tend to assume it gets absorbed or dissolves over time, this might not be the case. “On 16 September 1969, a barge, The Florida, spilled between 650,000 and 700,000 litres of No. 2 fuel oil – the same as diesel fuel – in Buzzards Bay near West Falmouth. Using the novel technique of two dimensional gas chromatography, scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) have found that there has been very little decomposition of oil buried in the sediments of the Buzzards Bay salt marsh.
“’Even after all these years, concentrations of some compounds are similar to those observed immediately after the spill and reflect the persistent nature of No. 2 fuel oil in coastal salt marsh sediments,’ said Christopher Reddy, lead author of the study.”
To sum, fossil fuels combustion harms the planet and human health.
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