ChargEVC Applauds Murphy Administration Actions Positioning NJ as East Coast Leader in Electric Vehicle Market
Highland Park, NJ – ChargEVC, a broad coalition promoting electric vehicle use, applauded the Murphy Administration’s announcement of key initiatives including an electric vehicle (EV) rebate program and directing millions of dollars towards electric charging stations, as a critical first step toward positioning New Jersey as the east coast leader in the growing EV market.
“The New Jersey Partnership to Plug-In ensures that we are working collaboratively across state agencies and with our private sector partners to not only meet but exceed our goal of registering 330,000 electric vehicles in New Jersey by 2025,” said Governor Murphy. “This new initiative is part of our broader effort to make renewable energy solutions work for everyone in New Jersey.”
“Today’s news is a breath of fresh air for thousands of New Jersey children and seniors who struggle to breathe our polluted air,” said ChargEVC CEO Pamela Frank. “We thank the Murphy administration for taking bold action to electrify our transportation sector, but we know there is so much more to do because cleaning our air will require getting electric vehicles on the road in scale, and it can’t happen soon enough.”
The governor’s announcement calls for:
- Working with the legislature to establish a rebate program for electric vehicles;
- Directing the remaining $7 million of the VW settlement money eligible for funding of alternative fueling stations to assist in the building of charging network that provides minimal essential coverage, as described by ChargEVC’ Essential Public Charging Network (EPCN);
- Establishing a formal interagency cooperation agreement between the BPU, DEP and EDA to ensure a coordinated approach to market development initiatives.
Building out charging infrastructure that provides the minimum coverage needed will make charging easy, convenient, and accessible to the public, an essential strategy to address the range anxiety that prevents customers from buying electric vehicles.
“We look forward to the funding to help jump start building this essential infrastructure,” said Scott Fisher, Vice President of Greenlots and Officer of ChargEVC. “The VW and ratepayer seed funding together will be a catalyst for building out the best-in-class public charging infrastructure needed to accelerate the widespread adoption of electric vehicles.”
The build-out of the EPCN will be facilitated by the Atlantic City Electric and PSE&G filings at BPU, which are a critical component of prompting EV use and building needed infrastructure.
The actions by the Governor are consistent with recommendations from ChargEVC and complementary to landmark legislation (S2252/A4819) that advocates are pushing for passage this year. Taken all together, this would place New Jersey on a leadership path to enable the acceleration of the market, with economic benefits including lower electricity costs for all customers and lower greenhouse and other health impacting emissions.
“Making electric cars affordable and accessible to more customers is key to ushering in the benefits of an electrified transportation system,” said Jim Appleton, President of NJCAR and officer of ChargEVC. “A rebate program that is in the market in 2019-2020 is well-timed given that we expect to see a wider array of vehicle choices for consumers in that time frame. Ensuring the right level of cash-on-the-hood style rebate that provides a one-stop shopping experience at dealerships will be key to a successful program. We should learn from the successes of existing well-designed programs in the market today that have gotten this right.”
Adding more fuel to the EV fire is the award of VW projects, announced earlier today. Some of the projects include electrified garbage trucks and buses.
“Someone wise once noted that the journey of a thousand miles starts with one step,” said Doug O’Malley, Executive Director of Environment New Jersey and ChargEVC President. “This is clearly a long journey, and while we are encouraged by these first steps, let us not forget that we have a long way to go.”