Nevada has a new law that lowers the price upfront of medium- and heavy-duty electric trucks and buses for businesses and public fleets.
Governor Joe Lombardo (R-NV) signed Assembly Bill 184 – the Nevada Clean Trucks and Buses Incentive Program – into law this month. It provides incentives for Nevada-based businesses and public organizations who own gas or diesel-powered trucks and buses to switch to electric vehicles. (Hydrogen vehicles are also included in the program.)
AB184 defines a clean truck or bus as a “medium-duty or heavy-duty vehicle … powered by electricity that is stored in a battery or produced by a hydrogen fuel cell and produces zero exhaust emissions.”
The base incentive for an electric truck or bus will depend on its gross vehicle weight rating class. There are eight weight classes, but Nevada is only providing incentives for seven classes, from 2B – which has a base incentive of $20,000 – and up. The heaviest gross vehicle weight rating class, 8, has a base incentive of $175,000. (Tesla manufactures class 8 electric semi trucks, pictured above, in Nevada, and they cost around $250,000 per unit.)
There are also additional incentives for certain categories that can be bundled with the base incentives. For example, small businesses get a 20% increase to the base incentive, and an independent truck owner gets a 33% increase to the base incentive. School districts and charter schools get a 20% increase to the base incentive. Disadvantaged small businesses – e.g., minority-owned, veteran-owned, LGBTQ-owned, and woman-owned – get a 5% increase. All of these can be combined with one other applicable increase.
The Nevada Clean Trucks and Buses Incentive Program will fund the incentives with 35% of the money allotted to Nevada by the federal government’s Carbon Reduction Program. The program will launch in January 2024.
It’s worth noting that state public health organizations are publicly celebrating this law. John Packham, policy director for the Nevada Public Health Association, said [via the American Lung Association]:
Public health organizations across Nevada support the investment in zero-emission transportation because we know it is critical to improving air quality.
Establishing the Nevada Clean Trucks and Buses Incentive Program will reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions and protect the air we breathe.
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