$20 Million in Incentives for Climate-Friendly Heavy-Duty Hybrids Available Online Today

PASADENA, Calif.--A ground-breaking California project designed to stimulate the purchase and use of medium- and heavy-duty hybrid trucks and buses has opened for business today at the website “CaliforniaHVIP.org.”

The Hybrid Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Program (HVIP) was created by the California Air Resources Board (ARB) to help California truck and bus buyers to buy these advanced, low-emission vehicles by providing vouchers to directly reduce their cost. HVIP provides buyers with purchase vouchers ranging from $10,000 to $45,000 per eligible vehicle. However, vouchers are only available on a first-come, first-served basis and buyers (fleets) are limited to no more than 100 vouchers each.

CALSTART, the clean transportation organization, is administering the HVIP program for ARB and operates the “CaliforniaHVIP.org” website to support fleet, dealer and manufacturer involvement in the program. All voucher applications are made online by truck dealers working with a truck buyer.

HVIP is a dynamic, novel approach to driving new technology to market. It is the nation’s first program to directly reduce the up-front cost of hybrid vehicles for fleets that purchase and operate them in California. The HVIP voucher cuts about half the incremental cost of purchasing early-production hybrid heavy-duty trucks and buses, helping owners buy this cleaner new technology when production volumes are still low, and prices high. The estimated 800 vehicles HVIP should place on the road directly leads to U.S. manufacturing and technology jobs, since American companies are leaders in heavy-duty hybrid technology.

Hybrid technology is important because it can cut truck and bus petroleum use and emissions by 20 to 50 percent, including harmful emissions that contribute to global warming. The vehicles also reduce emissions that cause smog in California cities and towns, while saving their owners money in reduced fuel costs.

“CALSTART is proud to implement this first-of-its-kind project on behalf of the ARB. HVIP will help put advanced, low-carbon and clean hybrid trucks and buses on the roads of California faster, assist state fleets to make an earlier transition to high-efficiency vehicles, and support the growth of the future green technology jobs our state needs,” said John Boesel, CALSTART President and CEO.

About CALSTART

CALSTART is a member-supported organization of more than 140 firms, fleets and agencies worldwide dedicated to supporting a growing high-tech, clean transportation industry that cleans the air, creates jobs, cuts imported oil and reduces global warming emissions. It operates a major national program, the Hybrid Truck Users Forum (HTUF), in partnership with the U.S. Army which has sped the production of the hybrid trucks now eligible under the HVIP program. CALSTART provides services and consulting help to spur advanced transportation technologies, fuels, systems and the companies that make them. Visit www.calstart.org.