Martin O'Malley, governor of Maryland, has signed two bills into law that will support advanced vehicle propulsion technology and help expedite consumer acceptance of EVs.
The Maryland legislation includes two consumer incentives, which include access for plug-in EVs to high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes regardless of the number of passengers.
The new law also provides a $2,000 excise motor vehicle tax credit for the purchase of a plug-in EV. Consumer’s will be able to take advantage of this incentive at the point of sale and can combine the $2,000 with an existing $7,500 federal tax credit.
The tax credit applies to vehicles titled in Maryland between October 1, 2010 through July 1, 2013, lasting three years.
Governor O’Malley said: “This important tax credit not only helps promote the use of cleaner, more energy efficient vehicles throughout our state to help our environment, but it’s an important economic development tool as well.
”We’ve set a bold goal of creating 100,000 new green jobs over the next several years, and investments like this new electric vehicle tax credit helps us build towards that green infrastructure that GM and others are leading the way on in Maryland.”
Tom Stephens, vice chairman of global product operations at GM, said: “Consumer incentives such as access to HOV lanes and tax credits make a real difference in the market place and can drive consumers to adopt new technologies.”