Thought about buying an electric car? NJ may soon offer one of the nation's best incentives

When you say ”didnt get any traction” does that mean it was a no or just ignored complete?
Should you request a audience in person with that said rep?

Find a different rep… at this point I wouldn’t even care if they were local.

Obviously some of these guys are in the pocket of vested interests, which is how the in-state BS got snuck in. Illegally IMO, if the text of the legislation didn’t require it.

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I wrote to my two reps and was totally ignored - didn’t even receive a response to my emails. Not impressed really!

It’s fine, as I didn’t get the rebate I have the option to sell my out of state e-Golf (for a profit) and buy a Tesla Model Y which will then qualify for the rebate.

That’s what I suspected. I guess they wanted to see how persistent you are going to be if they just ignore the problem:)

If I wasn’t planning to sell I would have pushed a lot harder. I still think it’s ridiculous but I guess the legislature has bigger things to worry about right now?

That’s’ what they want you to think :slight_smile:
That there is always bigger crysis than your issue.

I wrote to all 36 (?) co-sponsors of the bill. My rep was one of them. Only three responded LOL! Two of them positively, saying they will look into it but nothing seems to have come of it. My rep replied saying they cannot force out of state dealers to honor the rebate. So, the person who responded probably didn’t get what I was saying. I replied back saying this is not a dealer rebate but haven’t heard from them since.

Yep. Hey - you aren’t bankrolling their reelection campaign so no need to talk to you unless to really press. Typical politicians.

Hmm…you may be onto something here.
Maybe I will wait until my appeal to the Board of Public utilities is denied and I will then contact the press - NJ.com, Star Ledger and anyone else who reported this bill. Create a big enough stink and maybe I won’t have to resort to suing them.

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So, I went ahead and emailed the governor’s office because I saw this

https://www.nj.gov/governor/news/news/562020/20200210a.shtml

This clearly does not mention the out-of-state purchase condition, as early as Feb 10. And also, Page 2 of this document P.L. 2019, CHAPTER 362

Which states

“Eligible vehicle” means a new light duty plug-in electric vehicle, with an MSRP of
below $55,000, purchased or leased after the effective date of P.L.2019, c.362 (C.48:25-1 et
al.) and registered in New Jersey.

Join in people. I would rather get my entire 5K instead of sharing it with a class action lawyer.

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Hi, a thought,

Full disclosure: I’m a broker on this forum pushing Hyundai EV leases in NJ. But also an avid EV enthusiast and proud New Jersey resident. So, obviously, I am biased.

Based on my experience leasing an electric car in NJ from before Jan of 2020, and the current used car market, it seems like there is a potential solution to this problem that would be much smoother and cheaper than a class action lawsuit.

If you got a great deal on your electric car out-of-state, you may be in a positive equity position for a trade-in or sell. You should evaluate selling your car to Carvana, Vroom, KBB Instant Cash Offer, Carmax, or a regular dealership, if you can get at or near your payoff.

Then simply lease a new electric vehicle in NJ with the new rebate and claim your $5k rebate check.

The market is very weird with EVs, some regions pay a lot more for them than others, and some brands have more favorable buyouts than others.

I do sincerely feel for those that bought a car thinking a $5k check would be coming only to find out they were ineligible.

How simple is it if vested interests added the in-state gotcha to create a monopoly? Discounts will dry up, etch/kahu/lojack will get installed and MF will get marked up such that most of the $5,000 will not actually benefit the consumer.

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This, 100% - the only way people won’t get screwed is by buying a Tesla because they don’t play those games.

It’s just a hand-out to the NJ dealers.

PREACH! This is especially true at Hyundai dealerships. That’s why I love this site, and why I realized that I had to be a lease broker. It’s a difficult nut to crack but it’s possible to get the cars without all the extra markup. You either have to know somebody, use a broker, or accept that you’ll pay some markup. I had to call in some favors to see if anyone I knew from high school was selling Hyundai.

After sitting down and going over the economic situation with the people that actually run the dealership, and showing them the historic Slickdeals posts from 2014 when this happened in Atlanta, I think I convinced them that they can just do hella volume and not make people miserable if they just sell the cars for a fair price and not splice random crap into their wiring harnesses.

I think it’s our job to keep them honest, because these are car dealerships in NJ that we’re talking about, but at the end of the day, someone is gonna sell a lot of EVs to NJ residents. Because NJ is a great state for EVs. And yes, I hope that someone is me. This is my paid ad on the Marketplace section of the forum.. I will try to keep my marketing separate from actual advice on EV ownership in NJ.

Well I’m in MA so you can’t help me. But what type of dlr discount (before incentives) is possible for Ionic EV various trims?

There’s not big margin in the base model car. Few hundred more to play with in the Limited. What you’ll discover at Hyundai dealerships is that first pencil is usually OVER MSRP by the time all the crap and fees are added to your car. If you can lease the car for MSRP, or $500 less, by the time the doc fee, etching, KAHU, and all that stuff is added back into the price, you’ve actually done pretty well.

With brands like BMW or something, % off MSRP on the sell price of the car tends to be a good comparison point. With Hyundais, the $ amount of straight dealer-markup line items is usually where the negotiating needs to happen. If you can get all your dealer fees down to $700 or less (usually just a Doc fee and one add-on), and $700 off the MSRP of a new Hyundai, thus getting a markup-free car, you’ve done pretty well, and are paying thousands less than the next guy off the st at the same dealer.

Has anybody tried to flip their etrons yet?

Just FYI, they’ve re-allocated a large chunk of the $$$ for this program so it may be about to run out of money already.

Puts me in a tricky spot because I have a Model Y on order and after the out-of-state debacle I have absolutely no faith that they’ll give notice of the funds running out.

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How does the rebate work with Teslas? Is it a point of sale order or you have to file for it afterwards?

You get the check in the mail after the fact for Teslas and all other EVs. Just apply online at at the CHARGEUP.NJCLEANERGY site after purchasing. Make sure the vehicle’s MSRP is under $55k.