New Jersey’s Popular EV Rebate Program Open for Business
Highland Park, NJ – For those in the market for a car, earlier this week, Governor Murphy showed up in Asbury Park with Congressman Frank Pallone and BPU President Joe Fiordaliso announcing the reopening of Charge Up New Jersey – the popular program providing rebates for electric vehicles (EVs). “We were happy the announcement was made in Asbury Park as this will also be the location of the first ever electric car show in the Garden State to be held this fall, coinciding with the popular Asbury Fest” said Pam Frank, CEO of ChargEVC, organizing the electric car show.
It’s a big week. In breaking news last night Senators Schumer and Manchin announced compromise legislation which includes extending the EV federal tax credits to all EVs – that is an additional $7,500 of value for new cars. There is a $4,000 credit for used electric vehicles and some details that allow tax credits to be transferred that would benefit customers without the tax obligations to take advantage of credits.
Back in New Jersey, this is the third year the State is offering cash-on-the-hood rebates – up to $4,000 for EVs with MSRPs under $45,000 and incentives of up to $2,000 for vehicles with an MSRP between $45,000 and $55,000. Additionally, EVs are not subject to state sales tax.
There is no better time to adopt an EV. Aside from the fact that there is nothing more impactful when it comes to reducing health and climate-impacting emissions, there are federal incentives on top of the state incentives, and record savings realized from electric fuel costs during a time when gas is exorbitantly high, all as more affordable EVs are hitting the market. Frank continues, “The car show will be a great opportunity for the public to see a wide variety of cars and take them for test drives.” Also important to note, the more new EVs on our road, the more those vehicles filter into the used car market, making even more EVs affordable to more customers.
“New Jersey’s franchised new car and truck dealers offer 40 vehicles with a plug, 19 of which are eligible for these incentives,” said Jim Appleton, President of the New Jersey Coalition of Automotive Retailers. “Many EV models are currently in short supply, but you can contact your neighborhood new car dealership to place your order now and take advantage of the generous Charge Up New Jersey incentives.”
The Charge Up New Jersey program is a key ingredient of the EV Law, enacted in 2020, establishing that the Board of Public Utilities (BPU) provide at least $30 million in annual funding for the program for ten years.
- This program was put into law to make EVs more affordable for more people – one of the three ingredients needed to get to the state goal in law, of 330,000 registered EVs by 2025.
- The second ingredient is the proliferation of public fast charging, which is getting a boost from three approved utility filings and additional federal money through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). New Jersey is expected to get its first tranche of funding this fall.
- The third ingredient is awareness, namely exposure to the cars and learning about how they work and the many benefits of driving an EV. Certainly, top of mind today is savings on fueling the car. EVs can cost less than 1/3 to fuel their fossil-fueled counterparts.
For the last several years, the BPU has provided the minimum level of funding authorized in the law. Last year, the Charge Up New Jersey proved to be the state’s highest profile program, closing after fully exhausting the FY2022 budget of $30 million in only ten weeks. In FY2023, the BPU has again budgeted the minimum level of funding for the Charge Up Program. It is expected that history will repeat itself this year given growing awareness and demand.
ChargEVC forecasts that an average year-to-year sales growth of 53% must be sustained over the next three years – 39,000 new EVs on the road in 2022 compared with 26,000 in 2021. This is what is needed to stay on track to meet our goals. The good news is that this is achievable – but it will require increasing the program budget to meet the increasing number of EVs that must be sold each year.
“New Jersey still has a twin crisis in front of us — a historic summer heat wave and the still sky-high cost of gasoline forcing drivers to spend more for gas. Our fossil-fuel-based transportation sector fuels our climate crisis and a silver lining of the high cost of gas is that it is driving many car owners to get serious about buying an EV. Gov. Murphy’s announcement about jump-starting our nation-leading EV rebate program is exactly what we need to make it easier for more drivers — who want to dump fossil fuels — to go electric. The NJBPU EV rebate program has been wildly successful, and we know cash-on-the-hood incentives sell EVs, get them on New Jersey roads, and reduce air pollution,” said Doug O’Malley, ChargEVC President, and Environment New Jersey Director. “We also know that the program has been a victim of its own success,” he continued. “We encourage the Murphy Administration and the Legislature to work to provide more future funding to provide stability for the EV market and to ensure we can ramp up EV sales to hit our 2025 EV sales mandates.”
We need appropriate budget levels, widespread fast public charging, and a robust education and awareness campaign to help grow demand.
We thank the Administration for its commitment to the goal of putting New Jersey on a path to 100% clean energy by 2050 and look forward to working with the Governor and leaders to execute on these three actions to get to the quickly approaching benchmark to get 330,000 EVs on the road by 2025.
More details about the first electric car show will be forthcoming shortly – see ChargEVC.org for more information.
Contact: Pam Frank, CEO, ChargEVC-NJ
Email: pam@gabelassociates.com
Phone: 609-577-2795
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ChargEVC-NJ is a not-for-profit coalition of diverse stakeholders that includes retail automotive dealers, utilities, consumer and equity advocates, environmental and labor organizations and technology companies. See www.chargevc.org for more information.