The penchant these days is clearly for the electric cars and we have seen that every company that is worth something is getting into manufacturing or marketing of electric cars. The thrust is clearly with the few pioneers like Nissan that is coming up with Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet that is coming up with Volt. There are others like Ford and Toyota that are trying to catch up and may have to do a lot of catching up before making any dent in the fast emerging niche of electric cars.

Besides the race to manufacture electric cars, Federal and State Governments are seen to be playing a critical role in trying to augment the demand for electric cars by offering direct and indirect benefits or sops. So, a Nissan Leaf will come with massive subsidies in some States. The question really is whether your State has allocated funds to subsidize your electric car purchase?

Let us try to answer that all important question as far as electric car subsidy is concerned and we will take the example of Nissan Leaf for comparative benefits you can score across different States.

To begin with you should be aware that an electric car purchase is worth a $7500 federal tax rebate irrespective of the State you live in. So, if you are looking to buy an electric car the Federal rebate will already sweeten the deal for you and save some good cash. As an example, if you were to buy a Nissan Leaf that is priced at around $32500, your effective finance outgo will be approximately $25000. In percentage terms, you are saving 23% of the car price irrespective of your State location. That is as good as any savings you could have made on a not so new car or the seconds purchase.

Apart from the Federal tax rebate, if you are living in California or Hawaii, you stand to gain even more. California is offering $5000 tax rebate on electric cars. On a similar basis, Hawaii has recently announced its plans to offer a $5000 tax rebate on electric cars, thus sweetening the deal for potential electric car enthusiasts.

After the State cuts, a Nissan Leaf will cost $20000 in California and around $22000 in Hawaii. In percentage terms, this qualifies as a 38% saving on the published price of Nissan Leaf. In other words, you are getting a new car for the price that is even lower than a similar gas driven used car of 3 years!!!

The next logical question is as to how you can claim that rebate, especially the federal tax rebate because that applies to all the States. The good thing is that the credit is passed to the vehicle manufacturer once they have fulfilled certain necessary conditions to be eligible to claim these.

Considering the example of Nissan Leaf, as per the Nissan Press-Release the federal tax rebate is available right away and its benefit is available immediately, thus reducing the cost of electric car immediately. Besides, if you were to setup a home charge then you are entitle to a Federal tax credit of $2000 to give a boost to building up charging infrastructure in each home.

Author Bio: Robin Smith is a passionate automotive writer and electric car enthusiast. He is a strong proponent of fuel cards or fleet cards for managing business fuel spending more effectively. You can find more information on fuel card by visiting the fuel card website.

Category: Automotive
Keywords: nissan leaf rebate, electric car rebate, tax rebate cars, federal tax rebate electric cars