2024 Year in Review

Successful NorthEast Electric Vehicle Symposium Headlines a Busy Year

EV Conferences and Showcases

• NorthEast Electric Vehicle Symposium – Over 300 people joined us over 2 days to test drive EVs and hear presentations on buying/owning an EV, along with public policy. Public Regulatory Authority Chair, Marissa Gillett, was our featured speaker. She described the Equitable Modern Grid Initiative that is designed to enable a cost-effective, economy-wide transition to a decarbonized future, along with changing the utility regulatory regime from volumetric to performance-based (utility compensation tied to performance goals rather than capital investment). Our full conference agenda can be found here. We thank our presenters, panelists, exhibitors and all of our sponsors. BMW was the presenting sponsor and brought 3 of our test ride vehicles.
• Participated in Drive Electric Week showcases in Rocky Hill and Central CT State University.
• We promote other Events throughout the state and help recruit EV owners to exhibit.

Rocky Hill EV Showcase                                 NEEVS Policy                                                   NEEVS EV Showcase – Rivian e-delivery van

Speaking and Panels

• Panelist in Sierra Club webinar on producing a Drive Electric Week event.
• Presentation to the CT Energy Network.
• The CT Roundtable for Climate Virtual Event – “Transportation Infrastructure and Electric Vehicles in CT”
• Presentation at Simsbury Earth Day Fair
• Gabe Shenhar of Consumer Reports presenting reviews of the latest EVs

Forth Mobility Electric Vehicle Adoption Leadership (EVAL)

• The EV Club was awarded Bronze EVAL status

The News You Can Use

• We published 45 blog posts and a mostly monthly newsletter to keep you on top of local EV issues. These may be club-specific or other EV-related items that are not well covered, if at all, by the general press.
• Rivian fought its way through a spurious lawsuit to be able to open a service center in Shelton.

• Enel X Way abruptly withdrew from North America, leaving residential customers with potentially dangerous EV chargers. This equipment had been a part of the approved products to receive the charging incentives from Eversource and UI but had to be withdrawn.
• EV Club worked with the Town of Westport to develop policies for its Town-owned public chargers.
• EV adoption in environmental justice communities.
• Tesla Opens Second CT Service Center in Stamford – EV Club invited to ribbon cutting.

Incentives

• We stay on top of the federal and state incentives to purchase or lease an EV and the incentives offered through Eversource and UI to charge during off-peak times. The state CHEAPR program is undergoing changes in 2025. We will follow changes to the federal IRA incentives should the new administration move to repeal or restrict them.

Legislation

• The environmental community has found the past few years to be frustrating. Nevertheless, we participate and play our part with testimony and/or op-eds submitted on the following bills.
  • Testified against SB 343 that would have banned EV chargers in garages, any garage. This did not pass.
  • In favor of HB 5231, 5232, and 5052 to raise the limits on the amount of non-residential solar. There have been modest increases approved.
  • HB 5204 – approval for low-speed vehicles (LSVs) on public roads with low speed limits. LSVs can be a practical and low-impact form of transportation. We support this but our feeling is that only electric LSVs should be allowed. The legislation passed without an EV requirement.
  • Advanced Clean Cars II – This is the politically controversial second phase of the California fuel efficiency rules. We participated in the ACC II working group and supported adopting this as our neighbors NY, MA, and RI have done. This did not clear the legislative review committee in 2023 and was not submitted for consideration in 2024. A diluted variation of this, HB 5485, mostly a study bill, did not pass.
  • There was no direct sales bill raised in committee. It was proposed by a member of the Transportation Committee but not raised by the committee chairs. Direct sales, while supported by 83% of CT voters in this 2021 poll, has repeatedly been stymied by the influence of the dealerships. Add to that Elon Musk having alienated much of the Democratic Caucus and prospects are dim.

First Responder Training in New Haven – EV Club Members Brought Their Vehicles

Data

• Continued tracking of EV adoption in CT in blog posts and the dashboard.
• Continued reporting on the most EV friendly dealerships.

We thank all of our members and contributors who make this possible.