T3.14 EV mass purchase discounts *
Create a group purchase program for residents to get deep discounts on EVs, other fuel efficient and alternative fuel vehicles.
These typically involve a competitive selection process to choose one or more offers from dealers, an outreach effort led by local government or community organizations, and a limited time offer to drive people to act quickly. There’s a detailed report on the first one, in Boulder and surrounding counties in Northern Colorado (and a handbook with advice about setting up EV and solar group purchase programs). The program offered an $8,349 discount on Nissan LEAFs, 0% financing over 72 months to customers with qualifying credit, and free charging at the dealer’s fast-charge network for 24 months after purchase. The additional $7,500 Federal tax credit meant participants could buy the car for roughly half the list price, and the program led to the sale of 248 cars.
There have been a number of others, mostly with LEAFs or BMW i3s, including ones in Eugene, Utah, Rochester, and the Bay area. A friend and I formed a non-profit, Electrify Thurston, to try to set up a deal like this locally, without success. We had a lot of conversations with potential participants, but Olympia had a new economic development director, who was very concerned that the City might offend car dealers who weren’t participating, and we never managed to get an offer from a dealer in response to our RFP. I think we may also have been too small to bother with, since shortly thereafter the City of Seattle, Seattle City Housing, Seattle City Library, and King County set up a deal with Nissan which offered their employees $10,000 off the 2017 LEAF. (This was a particularly big discount because the 2018 LEAF was going to be upgraded to a bigger battery, so it was a clearance sale.)