More than three dozen US utilities this week asked congressional leaders to lift a cap on income tax credits for individuals who purchase electric vehicles, and industry observers differed Friday over whether the request should be granted. Section 30D of the US Internal Revenue Code provides that beginning in 2010, for a purchase of a qualified plug-in electric vehicle with at least 5 kWh of capacity, an individual can receive a credit of at least $2,500. For each additional kWh of capacity in such a vehicle, an individual can receive an additional $417 tax credit, with a maximum tax credit of $7,500. However, those credits only apply to the first 200,000 EVs sold by any one manufacturer since 2010. Some companies that have been building electric vehicles for many years are likely to have accumulated sales totaling 200,000 or more this year, which would begin a one-year phase-out of […]