It’s a New Year (and a new day) for Fleet Electrification
Happy 2023!!
This year is poised to be a BIG YEAR for Fleet Electrification as the new grant landscape makes the total cost of ownership for electric equipment more compelling than ever before.
We’ll see this play over the next 12 months as new incentives offered by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) – in addition to EPA and FTA funding – all but eliminate risk for municipalities seeking to deliver on their environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals. Taking diesel engines off the road to reducing greenhouse gas emissions has never been so economically feasible.
Historically, incentives for electrification focused mostly on passenger vehicles, school busses and transit vehicles. But thanks to the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), commercial vehicles over 14,000 lbs are NOW eligible for significant credits and grants (up to $40,000 per truck). In fact, the IRA provides $500 billion in incentives for electric commercial vehicles, charging infrastructure and other components of the electric ecosystem.
“The fact that the IRA includes a new commercial EV tax credit is, to my mind, a game changer,” said Sara Baldwin - Director of Electrification at Energy Innovation, a non-partisan energy and climate policy think tank.
“As far as we’re aware, this is an unprecedented incentive,” Baldwin said. “Combine that with the fact that we now have billions of dollars flowing to charging infrastructure at the same time - two barriers have effectively been unlocked: the up-front cost barrier and then the charging and range anxiety barrier.”
Because these grants are often “stackable” (meaning, they can be combined with other funding offered at the federal, state and local levels), it puts electrification within reach for local governments who might not have the budget, but want to serve their communities in the healthiest and most sustainable way.
But getting your hands on new electric equipment can be difficult – supply chain disruptions have resulted in extremely long lead times - years even. A quicker - and more cost effective - way to deliver on your sustainability goals, leverage this new funding and test electrification is to RETROFIT your existing fleet.
And we can help with that.
Really Good Equipment recently introduced electrification as an option within our municipal fleet reconditioning program – the Really Good Refurb. We specialize in ODB leaf vacuum trucks and trailers and have a team with 50+ years of experience and expertise in designing, engineering and manufacturing that equipment.
For questions or to discuss getting in our queue to be ready for the Fall leaf season, call Joey @ 804.363.1111.
For more information on electrification funding and grants, click here.