Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Magazine Article and 914 EV Wiki

I ran out to Barnes and Noble today and picked up the March issue of Sports Car Market magazine. My 914 was featured on page 38 along with John Benson's 914 DC conversion! I hope Electro Auto doesn't get even more swamped by the publicity. I'm glad these EVs are getting coverage so more people can see what's possible.

For those of you who have converted your own 914 to electric, I encourage you to contribute to the Electric Conversion page of the 914 Wiki at RoadGlue.com:

http://www.roadglue.com/wiki/index.php/Electric_Conversions

I spent most of last Saturday culling data from the 914 EV blog sites and writing the Wiki page so that others could get their questions answered and get technical assistance when they ran into problems.

I've commuted to work the past two days and the "smoothing out" modifications I mentioned a few posts ago work really well. With the transmission fixed, the DC/DC fixed and the DMOC445 smoothed out, I'm starting to relax and really enjoy the car. (Got that EV Grin again...)

Federal tax law doesn't let me get a rebate from the feds because the car isn't a fully qualified conversion; however, I applied to the State of Oregon to get the state rebate of $750. It's better than nothing. The federal rebate on qualified vehicles (all hybrids at this point) is up around $2000, I think. Maybe for 2008, at least the Tesla roadster will get on the list. Their first production car (not a prototype) just came out a few days ago.

5 comments:

Ross Cunniff said...

Tim,

Very cool! I ran and picked up the March issue also.

What's this "fully qualified conversion" stuff? Tax time approaches...

TimK said...

Hi Ross, Thanks for checking out the magazine. Federal tax credits for alternative vehicles only apply to vehicles and conversions that have undergone a rigorous certification process by the federal government. Not only the kit, but the installer must be certified as well. Thus, any home-brew kit won't qualify. All the cars listed for 2007 are commercial hybrids from the major auto manufacturers. I suspect the feds don't want a bunch of people at home tossing an electric motor in their trunk and getting a tax credit for having a "hybrid" car.

Oregon has a $750 tax credit if you can provide proof of the conversion and a receipt from the conversion kit company that you spent a certain amount.

Do you know the laws in Colorado? Have you chatted with other Colorado EVers?

Tim

Ross Cunniff said...

Colorado has a tax credit that I plan on using this year (you can only claim it in the year the car becomes operational).

link

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Unknown said...

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