On July 12, 2023, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) announced the fourth phase of the state’s Charge Up New Jersey Electric Vehicle (EV) Incentive Program. Only vehicles ordered, purchased, or leased as of that date are eligible for an incentive. In the first three phases of the program, the state provided incentives for more than 16,000 vehicles.

At the end of 2022, there were 91,560 electric vehicles (incentivized and non-incentivized) on New Jersey roads, according to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP). New Jersey currently has 2.5 million registered vehicles. That means the vast majority of registered vehicles in New Jersey are still not EVs.

For this latest phase of the Charge Up New Jersey Program, the state adjusted the rules to provide enhanced incentives for EVs with a lower price point in an effort to encourage moderate-income buyers to consider EVs. Under this phase, incentives of up to $4,000 are provided for vehicles with a Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) under $45,000, as well as incentives of up to $1,500 for vehicles with an MSRP between $45,001 and $55,000. Plug-in EVs (PHEVs) have not been eligible for incentives since December 2022.

Where is the Highest Utilization Among All 20 Counties?

The Charge Up New Jersey EV Incentive Program is funded through an annual budget appropriation, as designated in the 2020 legislation signed by Governor Murphy that created the program. Under this law, NJBPU will provide at least $30 million in annual incentives for the Charge Up New Jersey program for a period of 10 years ($300 million TOTAL). Unfortunately, the funding has been exhausted in all prior funding phases before their one-year anniversaries, and we anticipate that funding will be exhausted again before the one-year anniversary of this phase. A recent analysis of the incentive utilization found that the following three counties led the way:

1. Middlesex County
   17.24% incentives
   $14,492,300 total
2. Bergen County
   13.46% incentives
   $12,506,950 total
3. Monmouth
   8.43% incentives
   $8,151,600 total

Where is the Lowest Utilization Among All 20 Counties?

There are five counties with less than 1% of program utilization:

Salem County
0.17% incentives
$166,600 total

Cumberland County
0.28% incentives
$249,275 total

Cape May County
0.47% incentives
$470,000 total

Warren County
0.57% incentives
$514,125 total

Sussex County
0.84% incentives
$734,700 total

What Has Been the Distribution of Incentives Since 2020?

According to data available on the Charge Up New Jersey website, below is a brief snapshot of incentives per month from May 2020 through August 2023.