2022 was an action-packed year as you can see below. But we wanted to begin by saying a big Thank You to all of our members and supporters.
EV Evangelist Award
Club president, Barry Kresch, was given an award by Southwestern CT Clean Cities Coalition for Outstanding Leadership in EV Education. This award is a public acknowledgement of the positive contributions Barry and the EV Club of CT have made towards our mission of evangelizing the rapid adoption of EVs.
The Year of Incentives
With legislative and regulatory pushes at the federal and state levels, EV purchase and charging incentives became both more numerous and more complex in a big way over the past year – and it’s not over yet. The IRS is still working on the rule-making for the incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act and the US Treasury has delayed EV tax credit guidance regarding battery sourcing until March 2023. DEEP is still in the process of implementing the changes to CHEAPR from PA 22-25, and PURA is conducting its year one review of the charging installation and managed charging incentives being offered via Eversource and United Illuminating with anticipated changes to follow. We have spent considerable time keeping up with developments on our incentives page and various blog posts.
Advocacy
We remain engaged with policy makers, including for SB-4 last year, which significantly augmented the CHEAPR program. Our biggest disappointment was another year without a direct sales bill. The club has a seat on the policy committee of the national Electric Vehicle Association, with whom we partnered to submit comments to the IRS regarding the Inflation Reduction Act. Similarly, the club partnered with our EV Coalition partner, Save the Sound to submit comments to the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority regarding the year one review of the utility incentives.
Speaking Engagements and Appearances
The club educates the public about EVs through virtual and in-person speaking engagements, panels and events. Engagements in 2022:
- Wakeman Town Farm Westport
- Transportation Summit – CT League of Conservation Voters
- Schiller Shoreline Lifelong Learning Institute in Guilford (with People’s Action for Clean Energy – PACE)
- Y’s Men – YMCA, Westport
- Greenwich Conservation Commission/Greenwich Sustainability Committee
- Westport Rotary
- CT Humanist Society – Hamden
- Town of Kent (with PACE)
- Sustainable Essex
- EVs for Law Enforcement – Clean Cities Panel
- Westport Senior Center
- Clean Transportation Day for legislators in Hartford
EV Showcases
There are numerous events around the state and the club supports as many as we can, sometimes by participating directly or other times by helping to recruit EV owners to exhibit their vehicles. We let our members know about these via emails, blog posts, and our event calendar and have participated in events from Greenwich to Essex. Showcases tend to cluster in spring and fall around Drive Electric Earth Day and National Drive Electric Week. We also supported the return of the Electric Car Guest Drive, an event in which EV owners are paid to participate with their vehicles.
Wilton Fire Department
As we did with Westport a year ago, we arranged for club members to bring EVs to the Wilton Fire Department for first responder training. Aside from the requisite instruction, these events are a lot of fun as the first responders we speak to are genuinely engaged and have many questions.
Food Rescue US
When gas prices spiked, the volunteer drivers that this organization depends upon to “rescue” food before it is discarded so it can be donated to organizations serving food insecure families became harder to come by. A number of club members stepped in to fill this need. Food Rescue advised us they considered club participation to be a huge success.
EV Club Joins for Event with Rivian Owners Club
The new Rivian R1T pickup and R1S SUV have begun to be delivered to reservation holders in 2022. In May, the EV Club joined up with the Rivian Owners Club for a meetup at the Bridgeport Brewing Company with Rivian owners showing their vehicles to EV Club members. Funds from an event fund raiser went to support our EV Coalition partner, Save the Sound. See the video tour.
CT EV Data
- EV Dashboard based on our Freedom of Information Act Requests of the Department of Motor Vehicles – updated semi-annually.
- CHEAPR rebates monthly and an annual summary of rebates by dealership (our proxy for EV-friendly dealers to the extent they sell CHEAPR-eligible vehicles).
- Ad hoc projects, such as the financial analysis done for the Westport Police Tesla Model 3 patrol car with the possibility of an update for the new Model Y patrol car.
Public Meetings
It has been more challenging to hold meetings during the pandemic. We have tried to fill the gap with virtual meetings at which we hosted speakers. This year we had speakers from Eversource and UI discuss the new consumer and commercial charging programs. A brand ambassador from Aptera joined us to discuss their unique approach to a solarized EV. We ended the year with a gathering at the new net-zero Hotel Marcel in New Haven where we celebrated the opening of L2 and Tesla charging stations.