Arizona utility offers customers $1000 rebate to switch to electric cars

[MEDICALJMP]

Arizona utility offers customers $1,000 rebate to switch to electric cars
Michelle Lewis
- Mar. 12th 2021 10:25 am ET

Arizona utility Salt River Project (SRP) really wants its customers to drive electric cars, so it’s now offering any customer who buys an EV a $1,000 rebate in a pilot program.

Electric car rebate in Arizona
SRP has one of the largest workplace charging programs in Arizona, and by the end of 2021, its sedan fleet will be fully electric.

Marc Campbell, SRP manager of sustainable programs, told Fox10:

There are approximately 20,000 registered electric vehicles in SRP service territory in the greater metropolitan Phoenix area. We have set an aggressive sustainability goal of 500,000 electric vehicles by 2035.

There are a number of community benefits that come along with this. Reduce greenhouse gas, tailpipe emissions, improved air quality, and of course, reduced maintenance costs.
This is really something that is part of our corporate strategic direction, to get out and support the community to electrify transportation.

SRP is doing its bit to incentivize EV driving. On March 3, it published “21 reasons to drive an electric vehicle in 2021” on its blog. (You can read that here.) No. 1 is their $1,000 rebate, and No. 2 notes that SRP offers $250 off a Level 2 charger when you buy it from SRP marketplace.
It also points out that vehicle registration fees are cheaper for electric cars in Arizona than for ICE cars:

Through 2021, the registration for fully battery-powered electric vehicles is calculated based on a 0.0004 multiplier compared to a 0.02381 multiplier for any vehicle that has an internal combustion engine. So while a typical $30,000 car would have an annual registration fee of $714.30, a $30,000 EV would have a $12 registration fee.

Further, Arizona EV drivers get a special license plate that gives HOV lane privileges, and of course, not have to bother with getting emissions tested.

SRP has a EV Community Central web page for signed-up members, which can be found here. It points out that in 2010, there were only four electric vehicles registered in Arizona, and by 2018, it had reached more than 18,000.

Electrek’s take
From where I’m sitting, this looks like exactly the sort of thing all utilities ought to be doing: incentivizing customers to switch to electric cars and supporting them with easy-to-access information. This is in contrast to state legislatures currently trying to pass even more bills that will charge EV drivers more to register their cars, since they feel it’s “unfair” that they pay less than ICE car drivers.


https://electrek.co/2021/03/12/ariz...omers-1000-rebate-to-switch-to-electric-cars/

 

[Diehard]

That is nice. I would love to see the math they did to see how long it will take to get that $1000 back and if a rate hike is included in that math.

 

[Crissa]

There seems to be a bunch of code in the middle of the copied article.

-Crissa

 

[azjohn]

It looks like Arizona has improved in the past year, when I lived there SRP did everything they could that would keep you from transitioning to solar. I have now moved to an area that is more solar friendly. What SRP really needs to do is offer a fair net metering program. The change could have been due to a shift in state government to Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly

One positive thing about SRP is they are better than APS