Let’s start with the positives.
As of June 2023, there were 128,374 electric battery or plug-in hybrids registered in New Jersey, an increase of 33,806 from December 2022, a 33% increase in just six months.
Also, New Jersey was on track to adopt the California Advanced Clean Cars II standard before the end of 2023. Public comments were strongly in favor of this standard, which sets goals for dealers to sell an increasing percentage of electric passenger vehicles, culminating in 100% electric by 2035.
While there is pushback by Republicans in the state Legislature and by the Auto Dealers Association, we are hopeful that the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) will formally adopt the standard. This follows the adoption earlier this year of the California standard for medium and heavy-duty vehicles (trucks and buses) known as the Advanced Clean Truck rule, which sets similar standards for those classes of vehicles.
However, sometimes it seems like we are spinning our wheels and not getting the traction with electric vehicles that we need. Here are four examples:
• In my previous column, I reported that a year after the Legislature approved the Electric School Bus Program, in August 2022, it finally got around to appropriating the first $15 million in August, 2023—a year later. However, due to a drafting error in the funding bill, Gov. Murphy is returning the bill to the Legislature for correction, and we now expect the funds to be available to the DEP this coming January.
The good news is that the DEP has established the ground rules for the grant program, allowing for implementation as soon as the money is appropriated.
• Another long-awaited moment is the adoption by the Board of Public Utilities (BPU) of ground rules to govern when and where the state’s four electric utilities can invest in “make ready” projects to support electric charging stations. This is especially critical for large fleet owners, such as school districts in areas with poor air quality that are purchasing electric school buses, or major transportation hubs such as ports, airports, highway rest stops, and warehouses.
The rules are meant to allow the utilities to include the cost of bringing high voltage power to these sites in what they charge ratepayers, so that school districts, colleges, and other facilities don’t have to pay large upfront fees to the utilities to cover that cost. The proposed rulemaking has been pending for almost two years, and the BPU still cannot say when they will be able to formally adopt the rules.
• To add to these tales of woe, the state’s allocation of funds to the BPU to cover electric light duty vehicle subsidies (passenger cars) is once again inadequate. These incentives include a rebate up to $4,000 per vehicle and $1,500 for charging stations, subject to availability. The amounts allocated are still not enough to cover the increased number of vehicles being purchased.
JCP&L announced that they have exceeded their allowance for charging stations in September, three months into the current fiscal year, and the BPU is forecasting that funds for new car rebates will be spent before the end of the year.
This indicates that demand for electric vehicles is strong in New Jersey, which is ranked fifth among states in the absolute number of registered EVs. Interestingly, the four states ahead of us are California, Florida, Texas, and Washington.
• Finally, you may have read or heard news reports that the market for EVs is slowing down, and that one of the reasons that sales are being depressed is increasing “range anxiety” and the perception that the number and location of charging stations is inadequate to serve long distance travel.
The good news is that New Jersey has a $104 million grant from the federal government to install charging stations along major highways. However, the state’s timeline predicts that contracts won’t be awarded until the end of 2024 and construction of these charging stations won’t begin until the winter of 2025.