California Clean Fuel Incentives Reward 250,000 EV Buyers

More than 250,000 Californians have now received a financial Clean Fuel Reward at the point of sale when they purchased or leased a plug-in electric vehicle. This is an important milestone for the program after only 18 months since it began, the California Air Resources Board said today. It’s the latest example of the power of government working with awakened businesses and industry to spur positive change.

CARB and car dealers wanted a program to help support the sale of plug-in cars that made funds immediately available at the dealership, as opposed to other incentive programs that require applications and a waiting period to receive them.

It’s the latest example of the power of government working with industry to spur positive change. CARB and car dealers wanted a program to support the sale of plug-in cars that made funds immediately available at the dealership, as opposed to other incentive programs that required applications and a waiting period to receive them.

The so-called California Clean Fuel Reward program provides an instant price reduction of up to $750 at the point of sale or lease for eligible new plug-in electric vehicles at participating retailers. Since the program launch in November 2020, more than $319 million in rewards have been received by EV buyers. Of the total rewards, 21.2% of incentives went to customers in under-served communities, 10% to customers in low-income communities and another 10% to customers in disadvantaged communities.

“Our analysis shows that in order for California to meet its climate goals, 26 million EVs will need to be on the state’s roads by 2045,” said Katie Sloan, SCE Vice President of Customer Programs and Services. “The California Clean Fuel Reward Program is helping us reach that goal while allowing more people to participate in the clean transportation revolution.”

Funded by credits generated by utilities in the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS), the California Clean Fuel Reward makes electric vehicles even more affordable to a broad group of customers due to few eligibility restrictions and its ability to be combined with other federal, state and local rewards.

The LCFS is designed to reduce the carbon intensity of California’s transportation fuel pool and provide low-carbon and renewable alternatives, reducing air pollution and the state’s dependency on petroleum. The reward amount depends on the vehicle battery capacity where vehicles with a battery capacity of 16 kilowatt-hours (kWh) or greater would receive the full reward and vehicles with smaller capacities would receive a prorated reward down to 5 kWh.

The California Clean Fuel Reward Program is administered by Southern California Edison in collaboration with electric utilities across the state, giving all Californians the ability to receive the reward, regardless of their electric utility provider.