Ohio senators from both sides of the aisle are teaming up to encourage more people to buy electric vehicles. They said incentivizing EVs can help bring Ohio into a the future of auto manufacturing.
The bipartisan bill would offer a $500 sales tax credit for someone who buys an electric vehicle, with higher credits towards purchases for commercial use.
Republican Senator Michael Rulli said Ohio is positioned to be a major state for electric vehicle sales, with GM, Ford, and Chrysler having a presence here.
"All the three big are in Ohio producing cars every day and employing Ohioans which is number one. If we can employ Ohioans making electric so be it, if we can save the environment so be it."
The EV bill would also encourage the construction of more charging stations. Democratic Senator Sean O'Brien, said spurring electric vehicle purchases must include supporting the infrastructure so people have a place to charge their cars. He says this can become a "chicken and the egg" scenario.
"Which one do you do first? The infrastructure or do you build the cars? In this bill we're trying to do a little bit of both, get the vehicles out there by giving it a discount and then we have the reduction in purchasing these types of power stations for charging them."
A similar bill to incentivize the purchase of compressed natural gas vehicles was proposed before but didn’t pass.
