The appetite for electric vehicle charging stations is greater than you think.
When I proposed we launch a PSEG employee electric car incentive program, I expected it would be two years before we had 13 drivers for spots set aside at our Newark, New Jersey, headquarters. Instead, it took two months to fill the spots.
The enthusiasm was summed up by one of our employee participants, Jimin Liu,
“I was juiced up when they announced the program. I signed up as soon as I could, and once I had the spot, I leased a Nissan Leaf. The program made it convenient and economical to do my part to help improve the air quality.”
Participants received free charging and free parking (important in Newark) guaranteed for three years (matching the length of a car lease). In fact, the response was so strong that the company will be expanding the program later this year.
PSEG is not alone. With increasing awareness that reducing emission from the transportation sector is critical to healthier air, there is growing interest in developing the infrastructure to support wider use of electric vehicles.
Six months into our program, NASA announced the impact on climate change gases of its own ten-driver electric car program at the Kennedy Space Center. NASA calculated that in one year, these drivers had avoided emitting approximately 60,000 pounds of CO2.
That seemed like a big number, so at the end of the first year of the PSEG program, we thought we would tally our own carbon avoidance numbers. Our employees – just on their commutes –drove 120,000 miles and avoided emitting 50 to 60 tons of CO2 from their cars. Our numbers were larger than NASA’s mainly because of the larger number of participants and longer commutes of our New Jersey employees.
Of course, the amount of total pollution avoided is dependent on how much of this savings is offset by emissions from electrical generation. In states with clean energy (nuclear, hydro, renewables), it will be greater than areas heavily dependent on coal. In New Jersey, we get more than 55 percent of our energy from emissions-free nuclear and have a growing solar component as well, so the net reduction in CO2 by going electric is significant.
We collected other data as well. In the first year, we estimate that the 13 employees avoided buying 5,300 gallons of gas (again this is just for the commute driving), which would have cost them more than $19,000 (some of this may have been offset by 
electrical costs, though many participants charged mainly at work, for free).
The NASA and PSEG programs can be seen as simply two small pilot programs both encouraging their employees to buy and drive electric. I prefer to view them as windows on a future – a future where electric cars have, in some cases subtle, and in other cases profound, impact on various aspects of our lives: from reducing CO2 to help fight climate change and reducing localized pollution to strengthening America’s energy independence and bolstering local economies. This also will bring fundamental change to both the corner gas station and the large public electric utilities. It will require new thinking about how we pay for our roads. And, it will force us to evaluate how electric cars might strain the electric grid, and, hopefully, foster innovations in how individuals interact with it.
These two programs may not give a crystal clear view of what lies ahead, however they do provide a small window on what we might expect and give some among us time to anticipate, foster and shape it.
Paul Rosengren,
Director, Corporate Communications
PSEG
Having incentive programs like this for employees is an excellent way introduce people to electrical cars. People are more likely to try out electrical cars and possibly spread the word out to friends & family on how much they are saving in their pockets while contributing to cleaner air!
Bravo to PSEG!!
The Electric Vehicle Program started at PSEG was a great idea and a way to show other companies that this can be done for their own employee population.
I’d love to see PSE&G offer bike rentals at corporate HQ. Perhaps start up a program similar to CitiBike ( https://www.citibikenyc.com/ ), it would be a great way for the company to get its employees to explore and mingle with the city of Newark.
Danilo —
The Electric Car program was an employee initiatied idea — took some research and work on the part of the employee advocate (me) but well worth it. I think a thought out plan would be considered by management — good luck with it.
Paul
Really interesting read. I didn’t realize that NASA was doing a similar program. I still hope to one day buy an electric car and take part in this environmentally friendly initiative.
It would be great if the company would install a few electric charging stations where they have over 2,000 employees and generate over 3,500MW. Help Nuclear employees move towards more electric vehicles. We need charging stations.
Fran —
There are two electric chargers at the EERC. I know it was looked into at teh Island — let me see if I can fiond out what the roadblock was and get back to you.
Paul
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PS has tried electric cars in the past and they bombed out, what makes you think that these new ones will stay in the PS fleet?
Vito –
Electric cars of today are much different from those of the past. They are response, well-engineered and require less maintenance than a traditional combustion engine. Many are also duel fuel so no “range anxiety” issue.” I have a Volt which goes around 40 miles between charges and then can go more than 200 miles on gas. I am on electric more than 90 percent of the time and average more than 200 miles a gallon. Not yet right for everyone – but probably is for a lot more people than realize it.
Thanks for the comment.
Paul
I have a suggestion so we can encourage employees to drive electric vehicles – make it a hobby. I will ask PSEG to provide a space in our fleet garages at different locations for employees to work on conversions of old cars to electric vehicles on their own time, like weekends. I have been wanting to do that but I need a garage and tools. Maybe we can even have an employee resource group for electric vehicle hobbyists. In 2007 I spent thousand of dollars buying parts from EV America and paying other people to work on the old jitney with the intention of replacing the gas guzzling jitneys in my city in the Philippines that are used for public transportations. There were so many impediments for the business to succeed. Now, I want to work on it myself, maybe use the latest technology out there and I am sure there are other PSEG employees that will be interested also.
I am a big proponent of electric vehicles and hybrids. Due to my driving range, I opted to purchase a Prius. It’s fantastic … automoatically toggling back and forth between electric and gas. In the summer, I can achieve close to 60 MPG. I applaud the Company for instituting this program to encourage employees to go green. I am proud to be part of a Company that supports cleaner energy.
PSEG employee