SOUTH JERSEY (KYW Newsradio) — New Jersey drivers hoping to cash in on the state’s offer to subsidize a new electric vehicle at the start of the new year will have to wait seven months — when new funding becomes available again for the program.
The Charge Up New Jersey program has been wildly popular since launching in 2020. It was created by the state’s EV Act, which was passed in 2019 to reduce emissions, and transportation was the biggest culprit.
Cathleen Lewis, who is with the Clean Energy Division of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, said another goal of the program was to see 330,000 electric vehicles on New Jersey roads by 2025.
“When we began the program in 2020, we had roughly 30,000 EVs on the roadways. As of July of 2023, we had over 123,000 EVs on the roads,” she said.
Lewis said roughly 35,000 of those new vehicles on the road were a result of the incentive offered by the Charge Up program.
Under the program, up to $4,000 can be taken off of the price of a new electric vehicle with an MSRP under $55,000. It’s made even sweeter when paired with a federal program that can take off up to an additional $7,500 for qualifying electric vehicles.
The program had $90 million to be doled out over the 2022, 2023 and 2024 fiscal years. As a result of the program’s popularity, the $30 million allocated for fiscal year 2024 was all gone by June 2023.
“The money is allocated through a public process. And that fiscal year starts on July 1 and goes from July 1 to June 30. And then there is another public process that happens so that we can run a program beginning in July of 2024,” said Lewis.
At that point, the funding will be for fiscal year 2025 of the program.
Find out more at chargeup.njcleanenergy.com.