Why electric vehicles? For all kinds of reasons, from financial to environmental. Jump to each section below to find out more.

• Saving you money
• Tax credits and incentives
• Better for the environment
• Future benefits

Saving you money
Because they use electricity for all or part of their power, electric vehicles are less costly to run. You’ll spend about four times more on fuel to run a typical gas-powered sedan than a battery electric vehicle sedan.

Battery electric vehicles also benefit from not having a transmission or combustion engine — eliminating oil changes, fuel filters, emissions testing and other costly maintenance. A simplified drive train and braking system means greater reliability and fewer potential repairs, too.

An electric vehicle’s most expensive maintenance item is likely to be the battery, which has a limited lifespan. Unless this changes, every electric vehicle will eventually need a new battery pack, but not necessarily by the first owner. While the cost of batteries varies, it will likely be several thousand dollars.

However, rapid developments in battery technology are expected to extend battery life and lower costs. And people are already driving today’s battery packs much farther — as much as double the listed lifespan — than previously expected. Finally, vehicle manufacturers also may offer battery leasing and/or lengthy battery warranties that will enhance the cost-effectiveness of electric vehicles.

Tax credits and incentives
The IRS allows a tax credit for qualified battery-electric vehicles of between $2500 and $7500, depending on the vehicle type. A similar credit is available for two or three-wheeled and low-speed electric vehicles. To claim the credit, complete IRS Form 8834 (PDF) and attach it to your Form 1040.

The State of Oregon allows tax credits for alternative fueled vehicles. You can get a tax credit for up to $750, or 25 percent of the vehicle conversion cost, for vehicles put on the road after January 1998. There is a similar tax credit for charging equipment.

Better for the environment
About one-third of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions come from transportation — and 60 percent of that is from personal vehicle use.

Electric vehicles significantly reduce carbon emissions, even when using electricity generated primarily from coal. In the Northwest, our generation mix relies less on coal and more on a variety of sources. And by pairing an electric vehicle with one of PGE’s renewable power programs, you can reduce your environmental footprint even more. Electric vehicles also:

• Help the nation transition to renewable energy
• Reduce use of oil, transmission fluid and other hazardous fluids
• Support American energy independence
• Cut noise pollution

Future benefits
When connected to the “smart grid” of the future, electric batteries have the potential to benefit both consumers and the overall electrical grid. By feeding electricity back to the grid during peak demand, electric vehicles could help keep overall electricity costs lower by reducing the need for PGE to build supplemental power sources. Your charged vehicle could also potentially serve as an emergency generator for your home or business in the event of an outage.

Used batteries are another powerful source of energy for the community. Once their useful life in a vehicle ends, batteries still have some usefulness in them. When combined, these batteries can take on a second life as an uninterrupted power supply for PGE customers during an outage. They can also be used to store renewable power and reduce the impacts of intermittent wind, for example.

For more about the potential benefits of electric vehicles, and a primer on how they work, visit EV World.