PG&E Electric Car Rebate: What To Know
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It’s no surprise that people are looking to save money on taxes and want to get more bang for their buck from every purchase and every deal. After all, one of the big incentives to buy an electric vehicle is to save on the cost of gas and other fuel-related maintenance.
So, with this new PG&E electric car rebate, here’s what you need to know, whether you’re a PG&E owner or not.
Where Is The PG&E Rebate Applicable?
One of the biggest questions you need to answer if you’re an electric car owner is if you’re living in an area that has a rebate available.
Right now, the main rebate that’s available is in California. The $500 rebate there is a good one to take advantage of, especially if you’re looking to save on California’s more expensive tax burden for many residents.
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Why Does California Have A Rebate For PG&E Electric Vehicles?
One of the biggest reasons for this rebate is because California wants to help fuel the transition to electric vehicles. That’s huge because it’s part of their green initiatives and is one of the many efforts to help support a greener world.
California in particular is following the problem more closely because carbon-fueled global warming is a particular threat to their environment, as recent droughts and wildfires reasons have both demonstrated.
Are Electric Vehicles Really Better For The Environment
One of the biggest questions some consumers have, when they’re looking at the PG&E rebate is whether it’s actually a good idea from an environmental perspective.
After all-electric vehicles do have a larger environmental footprint a lot of the time depending on how they are made and because they use more rare earth metals than traditional gas-powered cars and trucks.
However, over the course of their lifetime, electric vehicles do significantly reduce the carbon burden and are a net benefit for the planet.
How Does The PG&E Benefit Work
One of the things you need to know about the PG&E benefit is that it works by giving consumers credits. You earn the credits when you charge your vehicle at home, but you won’t get them if you’re using external charging stations across the state.
Partially that’s because incentivizing drivers to charge their vehicles at home makes it easier to track the electric burden from electric vehicles, as well as tracking how many electric vehicles are currently in use.
It’s also at least partially because the infrastructure to get those electric vehicles working and more useful in the long term is still in construction, so people will generally get more use from their vehicles if they keep them fully charged at home.
The size of your rebate is determined by the number of credits logged for you.
So, if you’re charging an electric vehicle at home, but don’t meet the number of credits for the full rebate, you’ll get a prorated rebate instead.
That’s not to say that you won’t get a considerable amount, and most residents with electric vehicles will likely get the full rebate. But it does mean that the rebate itself is slightly variable and you shouldn’t count on the full amount unless you know you’ve earned the required credits.
All of this means that it’s best to charge your vehicle at home when you can and to check your account to see how you’re doing on credits.
The rebate will come to you through your taxes and is called the Clean Fuel Rebate since electricity is a much cleaner fuel than traditional gas.
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Eligibility For The Clean Fuel Rebate
The Clean Fuel Rebate does have some other eligibility requirements beyond just owning an electric vehicle and charging it at home.
For one thing, if you are an electric vehicle owner to directly receive the rebate you must also be a PG&E account holder. If you live in a home where someone else is the account holder you will not be given the credit on their electric bill.
However, if you are the account holder but not the car owner, you won’t receive the rebate automatically either. You’ll need to have the car owner’s permission to get the rebate, which means you’ll need to make sure the company knows about the situation and that you’re still eligible for the rebate.
The rebate is also issued per vehicle, not per owner, and is a one-time rebate. That means that if your vehicle has been used by a different owner and they have received the Clean Fuel Rebate, your vehicle is no longer eligible under the current rules.
You also cannot receive the rebate if you’ve received it previously unless you have a new vehicle that qualifies.
So, per vehicle, not per owner, and one time only are the important parts to remember.
Lastly, you must legally own the vehicle and it must be up to date in the state of California. That means that owners from out of state aren’t eligible unless they change the registration on their vehicle, and you aren’t eligible if you aren’t able to prove that you own the vehicle. You need to have a valid title and bill of sale at the time of registration to qualify.
Why So Many Restrictions
Basically, the restrictions are in place to make sure the Clean Fuel Rebate doesn’t end up taking away from other important initiatives and to make sure people don’t try to game the system to get a larger rebate than deserved.
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For instance, the per car rebate policy, instead of per person, helps prevent people from passing the same electric vehicle back and forth several times to benefit from an extended rebate.
However, that also means that there’s more of an incentive to buy a new electric vehicle than a used one, which further helps the industry grow by encouraging demand to go to the new vehicle market first.
Lastly, it’s also just to make sure the benefit is proportionate to the environmental benefit from driving the vehicle. There is a finite benefit to owning an electric vehicle, and California doesn’t want to trick people into thinking that electric vehicles are a better investment than they are.
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