This story originally appeared on Truck Parking Club and was produced and distributed in partnership with Stacker Studio.
How New Jersey is committing to electric vehicles
States across the country are paving the way for electric vehicles. This green topic is also harshly divided along red and blue lines—which is to say, it's heavily politicized. In North Carolina and Virginia, for instance, Republican leaders have rolled back or stunted EV initiatives adopted by Democrats.
Former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee in the 2024 presidential election, has criticized EVs and federal EV policies under President Joe Biden. Trump later backtracked and said he's "for electric cars" for a segment of the population after receiving an endorsement from Tesla CEO Elon Musk. But if elected, Trump still intends to undo Biden-era EV incentives.
To cover current EV incentives and get a sense of the impact that rollback could have, Truck Parking Club compiled information from the Department of Energy to illustrate EV regulations and support in New Jersey as part of a broader national analysis.
This analysis only includes public incentives and policies and does not include efforts by private entities or utility providers. It lists major incentives and laws listed on the DOE website as of Oct. 1, which in many cases incentivize other alternative fuels like biodiesel and ethanol in addition to EVs. This list is intended to be comprehensive but not necessarily all-encompassing.
New Jersey EV policies
These are the incentives, goals, policies, and privileges offered for EVs and other alternative-fuel vehicles in New Jersey.
Government goals, policies, and requirements:
- By 2040, aims for 85% of all new light-duty vehicles sold in the state to be EVs, with incremental goals in the meantime to add millions of registered light-duty EVs in the state; shift all light-duty state fleets to EVs; add thousands of EV charging stations; increase EV charging infrastructure at multifamily residential properties and overnight lodging; and increase the share of zero-emission transit buses
- Beginning with model year 2025, will require manufacturers to sell zero-emission trucks as an increasing percentage of their annual sales in New Jersey
- Mandates single-family property developers to offer to install an EV charging station for prospective owners
- Requires new multifamily housing and commercial developments with designated parking to prewire some spots for EV charging
Monetary incentives:
- Rebates to purchase or lease EVs (for residents, local and state governments)
- Grants to install EV charging stations at multifamily housing developments, tourism sites, landmarks, workplaces, government agency buildings, and nonprofits
- Grants to replace diesel medium- and heavy-duty vehicles and buses with all-electric vehicles, including charging infrastructure
- Grants to increase electric mobility solutions for residents in underserved areas, including car-share, ride-share, and ride-hailing services
- Sales and use tax exemption for zero-emission vehicles that were sold or leased before Oct. 1, 2024
- Toll discounts for EVs during off-peak hours on the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway
Privileges, protections, and exemptions:
- Exempts plug-in electric vehicles from HOV lane occupancy restrictions
- Condominium occupants must be allowed to install EV chargers in their parking spaces
External collaborations:
- Multi-State Zero-Emission Vehicle Task Force
Other:
- To pilot a voucher program to cover up to 100% of costs on zero-emission medium- and heavy-duty vehicles for commercial, industrial, or institutional organizations
- Will implement an Electric School Bus program to research the viability of electric school buses, which will include providing grants to districts to purchase electric school buses and charging infrastructure
Efforts across the nation
In the U.S., the transportation sector is the single leading source of pollution, contributing about 28% of greenhouse gas emissions in 2022. Three-quarters of Americans drive a car to work, most of them alone, and trucks transfer over 60% of freight. As a result, passenger vehicles and freight trucks offer a major opportunity to reduce pollution within the transportation sector.
Efforts to curb vehicular emissions vary widely from state to state. California has led the charge to reduce vehicular greenhouse gas emissions, adopting legislation in 2022 that will require all new vehicles sold in the state to be electric or plug-in hybrids by 2035. Medium- and heavy-duty vehicles like box trucks and semitrucks will follow suit in 2045. Since California's precedent-setting decision, 16 other states have adopted similar mandates with varying timelines and EV sales quotas.
Many states have adopted monetary incentives to promote EV adoption as well. Over half of states provide such incentives to install EV chargers and adopt electric or other alternative fuel buses. Meanwhile, 18 states and Washington D.C. provide monetary incentives for individual residents to purchase EVs. These efforts and others are funded in part by Volkswagen settlement funds, through which the company has paid $2 billion into EV charging infrastructure and $2.9 billion into a state mitigation trust fund in damages for cheating federal emissions tests on nearly 600,000 diesel vehicles.
On a national level, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is set to invest $7.5 billion in a network of EV charging stations, aiming to add 500,000 chargers across the country. The law includes formulaic state-by-state EV infrastructure funding each year between 2022 and 2026, estimated to total $4.2 billion in all.
Additionally, the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act provides Americans with a $7,500 tax credit for buying new EVs and $4,000 for used EVs, plus credits for commercial clean vehicles, EV charging station properties, continued development and manufacturing of clean energy and transportation technologies, and more.
Many of these efforts may face the chopping block if Trump wins this year's presidential election. The Republican nominee has said he will not allow states to ban gas-powered cars or trucks and may end the national EV tax credit. Meanwhile, Democratic nominee and current Vice President Kamala Harris has supported EV expansion efforts from within the current administration, even casting the tie-breaking vote on the pro-EV Inflation Reduction Act.
The outcome of the election is likely to have major implications for EV adoption and automobile regulation. Read the national analysis to get a deeper sense of efforts across the country—and which states may be most affected by federal policy changes.
This story features data reporting and writing by Paxtyn Merten and is part of a series utilizing data automation across 48 states and Washington D.C.
