Your Tax Dollars at Work: Chevy Volt workers idle

Quote from Rebound : You are under the mistaken assumption that I've managed to log each and every fill up. I have not. Since April, I've logged 10,000 miles in that car. My daily round-trip commute is about 85 miles. My electricity cost for charging the vehicle is -$2.00 per month. It works out that way, but unless you live in a place with extremely high electric rates, electricity is far cheaper fuel than gas. If you'd like a more detailed explanation, I can provide it. I've researched it thoroughly.

Ya know, I looked in to it the other day and the electricity costs of having a plug-in can actually outweigh themselves!

For example. My rates (Schedule DR) as a SDG&E customer are on average 20 cents/kw above the baseline and I'd say that well over half of my use is above baseline.

NOW, if I have an EV in the house that puts me on to the EV-TOU-2 schedule with rates in the 9.5 -> 9.9 cents/kw, regardless of usage.

Sooooooo, just by switching schedules and not ever charging my EV I'd save probably about $50-$70 a month because of the lower electricity rates. I'd be willing to bet that would offset the electricity costs most EV owners would incur.

I initially looked in to it as the Prius plug-in allows people in CA to drive in the carpool lane as a single person which would make it so my wife didn't have to take a toll road to work which costs $12/day but this sweetened the deal. So, factoring in the gas savings, toll savings, and electricity bill savings the car itself may be quite financially justifiable.

Any CPAs here? For the federal/state EV tax rebate I read that you actually have to owe the gov't $ in order to benefit from it. May seem like a dumb question but does that mean that at the end of the year you have to have a net liability or just that you paid atleast that much in taxes?

For example, if my tax withholdings were $20k and the amount I actually owed after everything was calculated was $13k (meaning I would get a refund of $7k), would I get the EV rebate on top of that??? I think so, but the wording is kind of strange. They almost make it sound like you have to actually owe them $ at the end of the year, that your witholding was less then your total tax bill but I can't see that as being right as that wasn't the case when I did the home energy efficiency (window replacement) credit.

Per them"For personal use vehicles, the Plug-in vehicle tax credit is treated as a nonrefundable personal credit and is limited by the taxpayer's amount of tax liability for the year the car is placed in service."