TRENTON, NJ – New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy is pushing hard to meet the goals set for his 2035 gasoline-powered car ban by pushing for $35 million to help New Jerseyeans ditch their fossil fuel vehicles now.
He’s calling his initiate ‘charge up New Jersey’.
New Jersey has 2.5 million registered vehicles on the road today. Only 91,000 are electric vehicles. The governor has a long way to go to convince the other 2.4 million car owners to switch, so he’s offering a way to help those who can’t overcome the high cost of electric vehicles with a publicly funded incentive.
New Jersey’s Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) has announced that the third year of its Charge Up New Jersey Program, an electric vehicle (EV) incentive initiative, is expected to obligate all funds by Monday, April 17.
Since the program’s launch in May 2020, the Charge Up Program has provided more than $90 million in incentives for the lease or purchase of nearly 25,000 EVs, and by the close of the program, an estimated $35 million will have been disbursed this year to support the purchase or lease of over 10,000 new EVs by New Jersey residents.
NJBPU President Joseph L. Fiordaliso expressed his satisfaction with the Charge Up Program, calling it “one of the great success stories of the Murphy Administration,” and emphasized the importance of reducing greenhouse gas emissions generated by gas-guzzling cars and encouraging New Jerseyans to drive electric. The Charge Up Program provides an incentive of up to $4,000 at the time of the purchase or lease of a new EV.
Vehicle electrification is a key part of Governor Murphy’s clean energy agenda, which includes increased renewable energy like solar and wind, as well as enhanced energy efficiency to reduce emissions and transition New Jersey to 100 percent clean energy by 2035. In order to qualify for the Year Three Charge Up incentive, New Jersey residents had to order, purchase, or lease an eligible EV in the State on or after July 25, 2022, and before the pause of the program on April 17, 2023, at 9:00 p.m. EST.