The 2010 Chevrolet Volt will more than likely sell for about $10,000 over what General Motors originally planned for the range-extending hybrid, but the country’s largest automaker has a plan to help alleviate some of the costs associated with the new technology.
At an event held in Nashville last week, GM’s vice president for global program management, Jon Lauckner, proposed a tax break for vehicles that use partial or full battery power for propulsion. “What we favor is actually a sliding scale depending on how much battery you have on board,” Lauckner told Automotive News. “When I talk about $6,000 to $7,000, we’re talking about a battery that’s at least two times the size of a typical conversion plug-in or even a plug-in hybrid that we would offer.”
Lauckner’s proposal hinges on a sliding scale that takes into consideration the capacity of the battery system on board. The general theory behind the plan is that the more battery power a vehicle has the less petroleum it will use.
Luckner’s scale would provide “a low of $3,500 for vehicles where there is an electric assist”, all the way up to about $7,000 for a vehicle like the Chevy Volt.
The plan is also intended to spur consumer demand as early electric vehicles will carry a hefty premium over their gasoline counterparts.
