Thinking of driving an electric vehicle?

Alliant Energy offers a new electric vehicle home charger rebate program and free public charging at its Madison, Wis. office.

To support EV adoption in our service area, we will offer up to a $500 rebate for our residential customers who own or lease an electric vehicle and install a faster, Level 2 home charging station.

A Level 2 charger uses 240 volts (similar to the larger outlets that typically power electric dryers) and charges the car in roughly half the time of a Level 1 charger.

The new program is meant to encourage customers to choose electric vehicles by making home charging times faster.

Beginning May 1, we are also offering free electric vehicle charging through the end of the year at our Madison office. We’ve installed five Level 2 charging stations that are open to the public.

These charging stations are part of our participation in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Workplace Charging Challenge for companies that encourage EV adoption by employees. We have installed eight more Level 2 charging stations for employees, and are considering adding EV charging stations at more company locations.

The charging stations are one component of an innovative energy education and research initiative that also includes a variety of solar components and battery energy storage technology installed at our Madison office.

Electric vehicles (hybrid or all battery) have several strengths. EVs are:

• Cleaner than gasoline-fueled vehicles because they produce fewer emissions
• Cheaper to drive and operate because they can charge their batteries at a cost of about $1.25/gallon equivalent

The EV industry has also matured to address many of consumers’ initial concerns, including driving range, cold climate battery performance, driving experience and price.

We generate electricity from a mix of fuels, including natural gas, nuclear power, coal, wind, solar, hydro and biogas. We are taking a thoughtful approach to moving toward a cleaner fuel mix, with a greater reliance on natural gas, wind and solar power while considering cost impacts to customers.

The new rebate program is limited to 500 participants over the next 12 months.

Check out myths and facts about electric vehicles  or alliantenergy.com/electriccarcharger to learn more.