Two years ago, Georgia lawmakers got rid of an attractive $5,000 tax credit for the purchase of electric vehicles —and replaced it with a $200 registration fee. The result was predictable: Sales cratered, declining more than 80%. While Georgia had developed the second largest EV market in the country (behind California), lawmakers looking to cut costs didn't see enough benefit.

 

That was in 2015, but now several groups say the landscape will look sufficiently different in 2018 that reinstating a smaller tax credit is possible.

 

And to convince lawmakers, they commissioned a study that calculates the economic benefits of broader EV adoption. Greenlink Group's analysis concluded lowering the registration fee and reinstating a $2,500 tax credit would lead to $100 million in gains to Georgia's GDP, and $54 million in increased income.

 

The groups backing Greenlink's analysis include Plug In America, EV Club of the South, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, City of Atlanta, Clean Cities-Georgia, and Sierra Club.

 

Katherine Stainken, policy director for Plug In America, said Georgia should be looking for ways to regain its leadership position on EVs in the region. "The EV 'pie' is so big," she said. Getting more zero-emissions vehicles on Georgia's roads "will drive new jobs and income to the state."

 

But Georgia's EV sales are still just a trickle. New estimates from Edison Electric Institute and the Institute for Electric Innovation predict a nationwide boom in EV sales may be just around the corner.  The two groups project 7 million of the zero-emissions vehicles will be on the road by 2025 — up from 567,000 at the end of 2016.

 

Whether or not the tax credit is a political possibility in Georgia will depend on several factors — including getting it done within Georgia's 40-day legislative session next year. But according to Anne Blair, clean fuels director at the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, opinions are turning.

 

"There seems to be some renewed interest in doing something on EVs again, after the 2015 repeal," she said. "Last year there wasn't a lot of interest. In 2016, everybody sort of said, 'this policy was just repealed, let's see what the impacts are and reassess in a year.'"

 

But Blair said SACE raised the issue with lawmakers again in the 2017 session, "to see what the appetite was for new policy. ... There was still a bit of angst."

 

But the groups have found an ally in Rep. Allen Peake, who organized a Ways and Means subcommittee hearing to discuss the credit, and also sponsored  Assembly HB 317 to cut the electric vehicle registration fee in half.

 

The bill did not pass, despite some campaigning by the Atlanta Electric Vehicle Development Coalition. Peake said it may be time to add back some of the EV incentives, and said "we will keep fighting to rectify this situation in 2018."

 

Stainken said she was heartened by the response to the EV issue. "It's not a done deal, by any measure, but there was interest at the end of the legislative session."

Regardless of what happens next year with the tax credit, Stainken said she is confident the market for EVs will grow in the long-term. But the state can take steps to benefit immediately.

"Battery prices are coming down pretty significantly, and the future of transportation is widely seen to be electric," said Stainken. "Whether it's five, seven, or 10 years, we will eventually reach price parity with gas vehicles .... at which point you might not need as strong a purchase support."

EV sales are projected to represent 7% of all vehicle sales by 2025, according to EEI's report — with the vehicles making up 3% of all cars and light duty trucks in the United States. All of this creates a changing marketplace in Georgia. 

"Because the legislative session is so short, we're working to build a lot of support for this," Stainken said. "We do a lot of follow-up and a lot of education with rural legislators. Some of the arguments that were in place two years ago, they don't really exist anymore."

Prices are coming down, and with EVs coming off leases there is a growing market for used electric vehicles. At under $10,000, they will be more widely available. But right now, Stainken said Georgia is viewed as unfriendly to EVs.

Electrify America, the group which will administer the Volkswagen emissions scandal settlement funding, "didn’t include Georgia as one of the recipients in their first round of settlement funding," she said.

Electrify America will invest $2 billion total, including $800 million in California, across four 30-month periods to increase EV infrastructure and knowledge. But at least in the early stages, Georgia will not receive aid from the settlement fund. The group selected several metropolitan areas for the first round of funding, including: New York City, Washington D.C., Chicago, Portland (Ore.), Boston, Seattle, Philadelphia, Denver, Houston, Miami, and Raleigh.

"This absolutely needs to change," Stainken said in a call to action.