Clean Vehicle Rebate Project starts Monday in California, get $5,000 off your electric car

If you're a California citizen thinking of buying an electric car, don't do it today. Wait until Monday. That's when the state's $4.1 million Clean Vehicle Rebate Project (CVRP) starts offering rebates worth up to $20,000 for eligible zero-emission and plug-in hybrid vehicles. Exactly which vehicles will get how much money isn't available yet, but Tesla, in its latest newsletter, says the CVRP will be worth a $5,000 rebate toward the purchase or a lease of a Roadster. Here's what we do know:

• The rebates will be worth up to $5,000 for new light-duty vehicles
• New cars, trucks, commercial medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, motorcycles, neighborhood electric vehicles can all qualify
• Individual or business owners who buy or lease zero-emission or plug-in vehicles are eligible
• Some zero-emission commercial vehicles can get rebates of up to $20,000

While today the best thing to do is to wait, once the program goes into effect, it won't be. The CVRP funds are limited and will be given out first-come, first-served.

[Source: Clean Vehicle Rebate Project]