In June, popular rideshare company Lyft announced aggressive goals to electrify every vehicle by 2030. This would include any that Lyft itself owns and rents to drivers, as well the ones that the drivers own.

The initiative will prove to be challenging, as the majority of the drivers on their platform own their own vehicles. It will require establishing policies that make EV affordable and beneficial to all Lyft drives within the next 10 years.

Managing Director of the Environmental Defense Fund, Elizabeth Strucken, said recently “Lyft is committed to using the most powerful tool we have to fight climate change: policy influence.”

The business plans to work with regulators across city, regional, state and federal levels that would ultimately help reduce upfront costs of electric vehicles, which will help the drivers save money in comparison the gasoline-powered alternative. Lyft Director of Sustainability, Sam Arons, already said they were able to work with Colorado Governor Jared Polis in modifying the state’s law around EV tax credits.

The result? Lyft was able to spearhead the “largest ride-hailing deployment in the US” with 200 electric vehicles in the Denver area. The plan is to replicate this with other policymakers throughout the US.   Read more: https://bit.ly/2OvcaAH

A new study by the Department of Energy discovered that long term costs associated with owning an electric vehicle in the United States is thousands of dollars less than those that are powered with gasoline. 

On average, an electric vehicle owner will save anywhere between $3,000 and $10,500 in comparison over a 15-year projection – but there is evidence to support that the savings could be even higher. 

Read more:  https://bit.ly/3fF0maY

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy recently announced a new initiative in the battle against climate change, which will leverage “land-use” rules that specify where property developers can build which in turn should limit that amount of emissions released into the air.  It will be the first state to require that these builders consider the impact of climate change (including rising sea levels) in order to be awarded government approval for new projects.

Per Executive Order, Murphy requires the Department of Environmental Protection for these regulations to be in full effect by January 2022. The move is part of an effort across US state to use these types of regulations that directly address climate change threats and to also as a response to the Trump Administration’s aggressive environmental rollbacks from earlier this year. Per Murphy in a recent interview, “This is not abstract for us … This is real. The dangers are there.”

The Garden State’s environmental push is considered to be the most broad yet most specific attempt at limited emissions. The latest is in addition to the state’s goal of producing 100% clean energy by 2050. As the New York times pointed in a recent article, “It is hard to dispute the impact of climate change on New Jersey and its 130 miles of Atlantic Ocean coastline.”  A recent study conduct by Rutgers University discovered that the sea level is rising more than twice as fast than the global average, and expected to rise by an entire foot by 2030.

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New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy signed into law new electric vehicle incentives. These incentives apply to vehicle purchased after January 17th 2020 that can be driven on electric alone and a priced under $55,000. Right now these eligible vehicles could warrant up to $5,000 in rebate incentives but the question is, “How do I get New Jersey Electric Vehicle Rebate Incentives?”

The answer is this; you will receive your rebate, but not yet. The program is so new that the actual mechanics of redemption haven’t been put in place yet. Phil Murphy has stated that the Board of Public Utilities is currently working on the application process and that it will be available at the end of June. A representative from Tesla confirmed that vehicle purchases made after January 17th are eligible for incentives and that purchasers will be able to apply for incentives once the process is in place. Telsa also confirmed that once the process is in place the rebate incentives will be available to purchasers right at the sale with the incentives being reflected right in the purchase price.

Current purchasers of electric vehicles and in home charging will be able to apply end of June/beginning of July.

You can check to see how much you are eligible in Electric Vehicle Incentives by using our calculator below.