Here’s how to find all the free money you qualify for when you buy an EV

A new tool is out that lets you search for EV incentives in your area, covering not just the federal $7,500 incentive, but any other local incentives to help you save money when buying an EV.

The incentive tool is available at ElectricForAll.org, and is powered by Veloz, an EV advocacy nonprofit.

It’s simple enough – you just put in your zip code and it tells you all the incentives that you might qualify for.

The site covers incentives for 49 states, every metro area with a population of 50k or more, and all the Justice40 communities identified by the Biden administration. The one state that has no available incentives other than the national one is Montana.

And it’s not just the federal EV tax credit, but state, regional, local, utility, and other regulatory incentives like those that might be granted by your local air quality management district.

The site also has a shopping tool to filter through available EV brands and see what’s available, in case there might be a model out there you aren’t aware of. The site gives price estimates for each car, but the price estimates are post-incentive – and you can click through to see which incentives are being applied in the site’s calculations.

You can even learn more about used EVs and some of the best places to find them. Some incentives apply to used EVs as well.

In testing out the tool for my own area, I found a number of incentives that even I didn’t know existed. Which is interesting, given that I report on these types of incentives.

For example, in Southern California where I live, the South Coast Air Quality Management district has an income-dependent incentive of up to $12k for replacing dirty old vehicles, California has a similar $12k incentive to replace old vehicles for low-income drivers in certain counties, and Southern California Edison has a $1k-$4k rebate for pre-owned EVs.

There are also a number of incentives for home charger installs, including the federal tax credit of 30% up to $1k, a $500 EV charger rebate from Southern California Edison, and an up to $4,200 rebate for upgrading your home’s electrical panel, also from SCE.

I live in a spot where lots of incentives are available, but there are likely to be incentives you don’t know about in the area you live as well. So put your zip code into the website’s incentive search page and have a look at the money you can get back for buying an EV.

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