Tennessee Announces $2,500 Electric Vehicle Rebate

Tennessee will offer $2,500 rebates on the first 1,000 electric vehicles sold in the state, Gov. Phil Bredesen announced on Wednesday.

The Tennessee rebate will be in addition to a $7,500 federal tax credit for electric vehicles.

The Nissan LEAF has a $32,780 base price while the Chevrolet Volt starts at $41,000. Both vehicles also are eligible for a federal tax credit that will cut their prices by $7,500. Together, the two subsidies will lower the effective cost of a LEAF to $22,780, or a Volt to $31,000.

The $2.5 million state program, which provides perks on purchases in addition to generous federal incentives to buyers of electric vehicles, makes Tennessee at least the fourth state with such extra benefits. Some states, such as California, Georgia and Oregon, also offer additional tax breaks that lower the price further. California has a $5,000 incentive for buyers of all-electric, plug-in vehicles.

The state of Tennessee also will be the manufacturing home for the Nissan LEAF beginning in 2012.

Earlier this summer, Nissan broke ground on a production facility in Smyrna, Tenn. that will produce the lithium-ion batteries that power the Nissan LEAF.

The Nissan LEAF also will be produced at the company’s vehicle assembly plant in Smyrna. Nissan LEAF and battery production will create up to 1,300 jobs when the plants are operating at full capacity.

The battery plant is part of a $1.7 billion investment in electric vehicle battery and LEAF assembly capacity in Smyrna, funded mainly by a $1.4 billion U.S. government loan for the construction of the battery plant and the retooling of the assembly plant. The $1.4 billion federal loan to Nissan is part of a $25 billion Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program authorized by Congress as part of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007.