And The American Epicenter Of EV Sales & Drivers Is . . . . Atlanta?

[hatrack]

When Don Francis wanted to buy what he says was the first electric car registered in the state of Georgia, he had to drive to the neighboring state of Tennessee. That was in 2011, when there was zero market for zero-tailpipe-emission vehicles in the so-called Peach State.

Three and a half years later, Francis, executive director of Clean Cities-Georgia, is on his second Nissan Leaf and more than 15,000 other drivers in the state have also gone electric, making Georgia the nation’s leading market for electric cars. During the last year, sales grew more than sevenfold in the southeastern state, with electric cars accounting for one of every 60 new cars sold, according to data firm Statista. That’s a higher percentage than the second-largest market, California, where the figure was one in 70.

So how did Georgia, not exactly a bastion of progressive politics and lifestyles, overtake the so-called Left Coast in adopting this green technology? And are there lessons to be learned from this boom for other sustainable businesses? Price, of course, is a key factor. Brian Brockman, corporate communications senior manager for Nissan, says Georgia’s $5,000 tax incentive, when coupled with a federal incentive of up to $7,500, has been a key factor to the state’s electric vehicle growth. (The state incentive will likely meet challenges in the 2015 state legislature.)

Georgia also has an extremely low electricity rate during off-peak, low-demand hours like nighttime, when many electric car owners charge their batteries. State utilities charge 1.3 cents/kwh compared to a national average of 12 cents/kwh. Another important incentiveis the fact electric vehicle owners get access to high-occupancy-vehicle lanes, called carpool lanes. This can make the difference between arriving on time or frustratingly late in the gridlocked capital of the New South, and is an example of the sort of alluring non-economic incentive that other sustainable industries could seek to adopt.

EDIT

http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/jan/08/electric-vehicles-atlanta-georgia-market-cars-cleantech