Bank of America launches credit card rewards for electric vehicle owners as it reports a 44% increase in charging transactions
Bank of America has become the latest credit card company to add benefits for electric car owners to its rewards program.
The bank’s Customized Cash Rewards credit card now offers 3 percent cashback at EV charging stations – in addition to the offer for traditional gas station purchases.
It joins US Bank, which expanded its gasoline rewards category to include electric cars in January 2022, and Sam’s Club Mastercard, which announced a 5 percent cash-back deal on EV purchases in May 2022.
The move comes after Bank of America saw growing demand for a green rewards program.
In the first half of this year alone, the company has seen a 44 percent growth in the number of electric vehicle charging transactions on its cards, the company said in a statement.
Bank of America has become the latest credit card company to add benefits for electric car owners to its rewards program
Bank of America’s Customized Cash Rewards credit card now offers 3 percent cash back at EV charging stations
In addition to this new perk, Custom Cash Rewards card holders can also receive 3 percent cash back on cable, streaming, internet, and phone plans.
President Biden has pledged to make two-thirds of new vehicle sales electric by 2032 — and build a network of 500,000 chargers across the country.
The government is also offering tax breaks of $7,500 to motorists who invest in ten specific EV models. Another seven entitle buyers to $3,750.
But an exclusive DailyMail.com survey found that the majority of Americans say federal incentives don’t convince them to buy an electric vehicle — and that higher-income Americans are much more likely to consider the purchase.
This is evident from an analysis by a research agency Opiniononly 29 percent of people said such incentives had any influence on whether they would buy an electric car.
About 43 percent said it didn’t influence their decision at all — and another 15 percent said it made them less likely to consider the purchase.
Only 29 percent of Americans said government incentives had increased their consideration of purchasing an electric vehicle
The Biden administration has set a target that two-thirds of new vehicle sales should be electric by 2032
Higher-income Americans are much more likely to consider owning an electric vehicle than those earning less, according to an analysis by research firm Opinium.
About 26 percent of people earning less than $50,000 said they would consider buying an electric car in the future, while nearly half of those earning between $100,000 and $150,000 would do so.
A whopping 70 percent of Americans earning $150,000 or more said they would consider switching to an electric vehicle.
Electric cars are much more expensive to buy than their petrol cars, despite generally being cheaper to run. It can take up to ten years for an EV to break even compared to driving a petrol car.
Figures from auto retailer Edmunds show that the average cost of a new gasoline car was $47,892 in May of this year, while the average electric car would cost $65,381.