New Jersey EV Rebate Program Closes Early, Committing all Funding for FY 2023 Budget
Highland Park, NJ–New Jersey residents are interested in electric vehicles. In 2022, electric vehicle sales accounted for 9.8% of all light-duty sales, putting us ahead of the national average of 7%. This interest is also evidenced by the early closing, announced on April 17, of Charge Up New Jersey, the state program that provides incentives, up to $4,000, to purchase or lease electric vehicles in New Jersey.
The announcement of the program closing included statements that the program had expended its fiscal year 2023 funds. We can expect that the program will reopen in the new fiscal year under a new and approved state budget. For interested drivers, that means likely sometime in July 2023.
We now have three years of experience with an electric vehicle rebate program, created under mandate by the New Jersey’s EV Law, enacted in early 2020. The road has been bumpy at times, which is to be expected for a new program. Still, the State reports that nearly 25,000 electric vehicles have received an incentive. Electric vehicles are typically more expensive than their internal combustion equivalents and the Charge Up New Jersey program has allowed many more people for whom an EV would otherwise be too expensive, to adopt this exciting technology. It is important to acknowledge that the majority of electric vehicles on the roads today have not received Charge Up New Jersey incentives.
Still, with just over 90,000 electric vehicles registered in the state today, much progress is needed to get to the 300,000 electric vehicles required in law by 2025. “Getting to this goal is a centerpiece of our state’s clean energy strategy. We need to make sure this program is running efficiently and budgeted appropriately,” says Pam Frank, CEO of ChargEVC-NJ. She continues, “We can be smarter now given lessons learned over the last three years.”
There are a lot of lessons to be learned. “Customers must be able to rely on incentives in the marketplace or they will lose interest,” says Jim Appleton, officer of ChargEVC-NJ and President of NJCAR. He continues, “the stop again start again nature of the program over the last three years has not been conducive to an orderly business environment and that ultimately hurts dealers and consumers.”
The budget for the Charge Up New Jersey program has been more or less the same since the program launched three years ago. Additionally, the rebate per vehicle has been adjusted downwards even though prices have increased over the last few years, due in some part to supply chain constraints and a global pandemic. An unchanging budget and a decrease in rebate amounts have remained the status quo despite the stubborn fact that the year over year sales goal for electric vehicles must increase to meet our goals. The Board of Public Utilities (BPU) that administers the Charge Up New Jersey program has the authority to increase the program budget.
Additionally, on the federal level, the U.S. Department of Treasury announced guidance on March 31st on electric vehicle tax credits, up to $7,500, that go in effect April 18th. “This can be a confusing time for those New Jersey residents interested in electric vehicles to navigate a significant package of incentives – up to $11,500,” says Doug O’Malley, Officer of ChargEVC and Executive Director of Environment New Jersey. He continues, “In New Jersey we can do our part with state leaders putting lessons learned to good use, to help shape the future of this program in the most effective way to deliver our clean energy goals.”