New Jersey lawmakers pass legislation for EV rebates

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New Jersey’s legislature has passed a bill that would give consumers large rebates on electric vehicle purchases, leases and in-home chargers.

The bill, which was introduced almost two years ago, includes sales rebates for full battery-electric vehicles that would provide consumers with $25 per mile of the vehicle’s battery range, up to $5,000 for cars priced at $55,000 or less.

New Jersey Assemblyman Daniel Benson, D-Mercer and Middlesex, told Bloomberg he worked closely with Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy’s staff on the bill, which passed Monday. He expects Murphy to sign it.

The state passed a bill in 2017 that waives a 7 percent sales tax on electric vehicles and provides a tax credit based on the vehicle’s battery capacity.

The bill would also provide consumers with rebates of up to $500 for in-home chargers.

“Originally, the bill was going to include infrastructure; that part was taken out in favor of the rebates for the in-home chargers,” New Jersey Assemblywoman Nancy Pinkin, D-Middlesex, who sponsored the bill with Benson, told Automotive News last week. “We don’t want to end up having a tax in favor of what’s already happening organically.”

Statewide public education programs and a “vehicle charging infrastructure plan … incorporated into the State Energy Master Plan,” would be implemented through the bill, it said.

Rebates for hybrid electric vehicles are limited to about $550, and would be phased out in 2022, said Pinkin.

Loren McDonald, an EV analyst who runs EVAdoption.com, told NorthJersey.com that the bill is “penalizing” the plug-in hybrid, “which I don’t think is in the overall best interest of the state or its residents,” he said.

The bill sets goals of all nonemergency state-owned cars and small trucks to be electric by 2035. It also calls for the state to buy only electric-powered buses by the end of 2032.

The American Lung Association’s “State of the Air” study found that New Jersey’s ozone smog level worsened from 2018 to 2019. Ten of 15 New Jersey counties received grades of “F,” the report said.

Pinkin said electrification incentives can give the U.S. an advantage both over the issue of climate change and overutilization of foreign oil.

“Unfortunately, with the situation in Iran, it just reminds us that whatever self-reliance we can get, the better,” she said.