Drive an EV and you, too, can pay the equivalent of 75 cents a gallon

One in six households can party like it's 1979 by purchasing a plug-in vehicle. Add a thumpin' sound system to that vehicle and you can celebrate by pumping out an appropriate hit from that year, too. We think Chic's Good Times would be appropriate.

Thanks to special rates for households with battery-electric of plug-in hybrid vehicles, about 21 million households (a sixth of the country's total), can drive their car for the equivalent of about 75 cents a gallon. The numbers come from a study from Northeast Group. Seventy-five shiny pennies for a gallon is about a fifth of what current gas prices are today and is equal to what folks were paying way back during the waning days of disco in 1979. Let's get down.

There was new on the lower rates for EV-charging last month when Minnesota became the first US state to mandate that investor-owned utilities offer plug-in vehicle owners such discounts. In addition to Minnesota, California, Hawaii, Maryland and Texas were among the 14 states with utilities offering EV-friendly electric rates. Sounds like it's time for 36 states to catch up.