The California Air Resources Board (ARB) has selected CALSTART to continue administering the California Hybrid and Zero-Emission Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Project (HVIP). Under this new contract, CALSTART says it will manage $10 million in additional HVIP incentives in 2015 and 2016.
According to CALSTART, a clean-transportation nonprofit in the state with 150 member companies, HVIP is the largest state rebate program of its kind in the U.S. The ARB initiated HVIP in late 2009 to encourage fleet operators to purchase hybrid and electric trucks, and CALSTART has been selected to administer each phase of the program since it began.
“We deeply value and appreciate the trust ARB has placed in us with this selection,” says John Boesel, president and CEO of CALSTART. “HVIP has been a highly successful partnership between the state, commercial fleets, CALSTART and the emerging industry to help speed clean truck and bus deployment.”
To date, HVIP funding has totaled $75 million, and CALSTART says more than 500 fleets have taken advantage of the program.
HVIP's 2014-2015 $10 million in funding includes $5 million from the state's legislature in support of the Air Quality Improvement Program (AQIP) – established by the California Alternative and Renewable Fuel, Vehicle Technology, Clean Air, and Carbon Reduction Act of 2007 (A.B.118) – as well as $5 million from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.
CALSTART notes both the State of New York and the City of Chicago now offer similar voucher incentive programs to spur the purchase of clean trucks and buses, and the nonprofit manages those programs as well.
