A program in Lansing, Michigan, that provides what is likely the best deal in the nation towards the purchase of a plug-in vehicle has come to light over the last few days—and it's a wonder that it wasn't plastered all over the news to this point.
Using money from federal and local funds, the Lansing Board of Water and Light will match the already existing federal tax credit of up to $7,500 for the purchase a qualifying plug-in car, resulting in up to a $15,000 overall incentive package. As an added bonus, the extra $7,500 is a straight-up cash payment that LBWL provides to you at the time of purchase, so there's no waiting for the next tax year to claim it. In addition, the LBWL will install, for free, charging docks in both the participants' homes and their places of work. The catch? It's currently only available to the first 25 people to purchase qualifying plug-ins in the LBWL service area.
Of course, the most observant among us will realize that the Nissan LEAF won't initially be available in Lansing, so the program will probably be restricted to just Chevy Volt sales, but LBWL tells AutoblogGreen that if somebody were to buy the LEAF somewhere else and truck it back to Lansing, they would also qualify for the extra $7,500 and the free home charging dock.
Of the available slots, 29 people have already signed up and the LBWL is looking for extra sources of money to cover more people. Participants in the program will have to allow LBWL to access their charging and use data as well as deal with having a sticker on their vehicle to indicate its participation in the program. The data collection is set to last for three years.
Lansing, here I come ;-) Seriously, though -- can you really buy a LEAF and truck it somewhere else? I thought Nissan was trying to prevent this from happening by linking purchases to customer zip codes, meaning the people highest on the reservation list and who live in the early roll-out areas get the LEAFs that come to California, etc., but those who live in places like, say, Colorado (like us), cannot hop a plane to Santa Monica, snap up one of its LEAFs and bring it back to Colorado.
Obviously, there are ways around this -- get someone with a CA zip, who's on the reservations list to sell you his/her LEAF if you live in Colorado, etc. Lie about your address when you reserve a LEAF, etc. But I don't see many other ways around it.