The North Carolina Plug-In Electric Vehicle (PEV) Taskforce has released the first draft of its PEV Readiness Plan along with four regional plans. The plans were created through the N.C. PEV Readiness Initiative: Plugging-in from Mountains to Sea and was one of 16 projects awarded from the U.S. Department of Energy. The project covered the entire state of North Carolina with a focus on four metropolitan areas in the Greater Asheville, Charlotte, Piedmont Triad and Triangle areas.
The report includes a survey of incentives offered by neighboring states and provides recommendations for state and local policy options. North Carolina offers no state incentives for the purchase of PEVs or charging stations while nearby South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee and Maryland do, the report reveals.
“Electric vehicles offer substantial gains in efficiency, emissions and long term savings to the purchaser and incentives can play an important role to spur more wide spread adoption,” said Anne Tazewell, the N.C. Solar Center’s Transportation Manager.
Other key highlights from the NC PEV Roadmap Plan include: there are more than 700 PEVs registered in North Carolina and estimates indicate there will more than 750,000 PEV on state’s roads by 2030; and there are 350 public and 170 private charging stations in the state.
“Currently, North Carolina is still in the beginning stages of plug-in electric vehicle adoption and the statewide NC PEV Roadmap recommends continuing to move forward with collaborative efforts to ensure a more seamless integration of these vehicles and to maintain its position as a leader in plug-in electric vehicle readiness,” said Katie Drye, project manager, Transportation Initiatives, Advanced Energy.
The N.C. Solar Center was one of five principle partners who worked on the PEV project. The Center’s Clean Transportation program co-lead the Piedmont Triad PEV planning process with Piedmont Triad Regional Council and lead the state wide Incentives and Economic Development (IED) Work Group with the N.C. Dept. of Commerce Green Economy team.