This week in Jersey City, with the East Coast’s first fleet of electric municipal garbage trucks as a backdrop, Mayor Steven Fulop unveiled the vehicles, along with plans to establish citywide electric vehicle infrastructure through a public-private partnership.

Using grants and community feedback, Jersey City says it will significantly scale up its electrification progress, increasing municipal and public use of EVs, reducing pollution and emissions, lowering costs for taxpayers and improving overall public health.

“We are leading the country in electrification and sustainability as we work to achieve a healthier and more equitable city. Incorporating greener technology is a cost-saving, long-term investment benefiting our community, taxpayers, the environment, and most importantly, our residents’ health,” Fulop said. “We are thoughtfully creating an RFP to build a robust multimodal charging infrastructure spanning all Jersey City neighborhoods at no cost to taxpayers to strongly promote EV use and encourage a swift public transition throughout our community.”

Fulop added that the plan is in direct alignment with the city’s commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80% by 2050.

Along with efforts already underway, Jersey City said it recently purchased 20 new EVs and that it was awarded a $1 million New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection grant to expand the city’s current number of chargers from 49 to 89.

So far, the city says it’s added 37 EVs to its municipal fleet and built 27 charging stations across its footprint. Among that charging infrastructure, 22 stations have dual ports, adding up to the 49 chargers. The expansion of charging infrastructure aims to promote more EV use in the city, along with enhancing efforts to grow Via Jersey City – the state’s first on-demand, city-run rideshare program – from 10% electric to 100%.

“We have already removed over 80 gasoline-powered vehicles since we started this process, swapping them out for electric vehicles and removing the rest entirely to decrease the size of our fleet as we move Jersey City towards more sustainable practices using strategies like our employee car-sharing program,” Business Administrator John Metro said in a statement.

Jersey City said it used another $2 million grant from the NJDEP to replace diesel vehicles with the recently deployed electric garbage trucks. According to the city, the EV waste collectors save an average of 25 gallons of diesel per truck each day.

And, all those municipal electric vehicles are getting their power from another alternative source: the sun. According to the announcement, the electric garbage truck fleet, municipal EVs and the city’s Department of Public Works building are all powered by solar panels installed at the DPW campus in 2020.

Since releasing the Jersey City Climate and Energy Action Plan in 2021, the city said it has made gains on achieving its goals. In 2019, the city purchased its first municipal fleet EVs and installed its first chargers for those vehicles. So far in 2023, its accomplishments include the grant to add the new dual-port charging stations.

Looking back, the city also highlighted investments from previous years, such as:

2022

• Deployed five fully electric garbage trucks – a first for an East Coast city
• Purchased 20 new EVs (Chevy Bolts) for municipal car-sharing program using grants

2021

• Released the comprehensive Climate and Energy Action Plan, detailing strategic framework for measuring, planning, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions and related climatic effects
• Joined the United Nations’ Race to Zero campaign, pledging to commit to becoming a carbon-neutral city by mid-century

2020

• Fulop signed an executive order mandating 10% of all newly purchased or leased municipal vehicles must be electric and an EO enacting policies to transition the municipal fleet to 100% electric where available by 2030 and cut emissions 80% by 2050
• Launched the first municipal car-sharing program for optimal size and efficiency, while also eliminating underused vehicles to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions
• Installed a 1.23 megawatt solar array at DPW
• Launched Via Jersey City, becoming one of the first transit systems in the country to use EVs, with over 10% of the current fleet being fully electric and moving toward nearly all electric
• Added eight Nissan LEAFs to municipal fleet
• Piloted four fully electric police vehicles within the Jersey City Police Department fleet

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