This incentive supports the purchase of battery electric vehicles or fuel cell electric vehicles with additional funds available for smart base charging.
Key information
- Status: Closed
- Grant amount: Grant amount is dependent on on bid
- Application opened: 24 January 2023
- Application closed: 23 May 2023, 5:00 pm
Program objective
Corporate and government fleets account for over half of new vehicle sales in Australia (and are a significant source of second-hand vehicles). They often drive more kilometres and have higher expenses for fuel and maintenance.
When organisations electrify their fleets, they have a huge opportunity to reduce their emissions and save operating costs. It can also have a powerful impact on the national market, spurring demand for, and increasing supply of EVs, both new and used.
This program aims to:
- achieve the greatest level of emissions abatement at the lowest cost for the NSW Government
- support the development of a strong secondary market for battery electric vehicles (BEVs)/fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs), when fleet managers resell their vehicles
- drive increased vehicle manufacturers’ supply to the NSW market
- promote a long-term transition to BEV/FCEVs in the fleet sector
- promote take up of smart charging infrastructure on the network.
This program is administered by Department of Planning and Environment.
This program is funded by Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water.
Eligibility
Who can apply
There are two funding streams with different eligibility requirements. Bids will be assessed against other bids in the same stream.
Individual fleets
You must operate a fleet of at least 10 vehicles in NSW to support your organisation’s purposes. Eligible organisations include - but are not limited to - business, local council and non-government organisations.
Aggregators
You can offer incentive funding to NSW customers as part of the vehicle leasing arrangements you provide. This includes fleet management organisations and private businesses that offer fleet leasing arrangements to NSW customers.
Who can't apply
Applicants below are ineligible;
- original equipment manufacturers (OEMs)
- car dealerships
- budget dependent NSW Government agencies.
What kinds of projects will we fund under this stream
Vehicle – technology
The incentive is exclusively for procuring new BEVs, FCEVs and BEV smart base charging infrastructure.
The BEVs/FCEVs can replace internal combustion engine vehicle (ICEVs), hybrid electric vehicle (HEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEVs). All fleet managers will need to provide registration details of the vehicle/s they are replacing.
Vehicle – total cost of ownership gap
Fleet managers may bid for an incentive payment to cover some of the TCO (buy or lease) gap between the vehicle that would otherwise have been purchased (ICEV, HEV or PHEV) and the BEV/FCEV they intend to procure.
For individual fleets, the total cost of ownership (TCO) term is flexible and can be calculated up to a maximum of 4 years, which is the default retention term. This reflects the fact that some business models may dispose of vehicles sooner due to high utilisation rates, whereas others will hold vehicles for longer periods of time.
For aggregators, the TCO must be calculated over the period of the leasing contracts. If the TCO gap is less than $3,000, fleet managers can ask for an incentive covering the full gap.
Most recent recipients
What your application needs to include
Prepare your application with this checklist
Individual stream
- Details on each BEV/FCEV that you plan to include in your bid
- Using the total cost of ownership (TCO) gap calculated by the platform, the level of incentive that your organisation would like to request from the office.
- In the case where you are replacing a vehicle, the plate number of the vehicle(s) you intend to replace by procuring EVs.
- In the case where you are expanding your fleet by procuring a new EV, the plate number of the vehicle(s) in your fleet with a similar operational profile to the new EV(s), that is, same use and same expected mileage.
- In the case where you are a subscription or rental car provider, the plate number of the vehicle(s) in your fleet that is representative of the average operational profile of the new EV(s).
Aggregator stream
- Details of EV models you plan to include in your bid
- Renewable energy expectations across all vehicles included in your bid
- With a consideration of the TCO gap calculated by the bidding platform, the estimated average level of incentive you will pass on to your customers
For a more detailed list of required documents and evidence – please see the full
File
EV fleets incentive Bidding checklist (PDF 1.32MB).
Address the eligibility criteria
Individual fleet
Any organisation that operates a fleet of at least 10 vehicles in NSW to support their business can apply under the individual fleet stream.
Eligible organisations include but are not limited to:
- private business organisations
- non-governmental organisations
- local councils
- state-owned corporations
- car rental companies
- car share companies
- car subscription companies.
Organisations meeting the criteria above can be headquartered in NSW or in any other State or Territory, but incentivised vehicles must be registered, based and used predominantly in NSW.
Aggregator
An aggregator is an organisation that bids on behalf of other NSW fleets. Under this third funding round, aggregators bid for incentives to support the leasing arrangements they can offer to their customers. The aggregator holds the contract for the incentive with NSW Government and must pass the incentive on to the individual fleets who operate the vehicles.
An aggregator can be:
- an FMO with a customer base in NSW
- any other private business organisation that offers BEV/FCEV financial and/or operating leasing arrangements to their customers in NSW.
Aggregators can be headquartered in NSW or elsewhere.
Aggregators can collate demand only from organisations that have vehicles in NSW. No minimum fleet size applies to the organisations that aggregators lease the BEVs/FCEVs to.
Address the assessment criteria
Once final bids are ranked, the office will assign the available round funds starting from the first ranked bid until the funds are exhausted. The funding allocated will include the incentives requested for the vehicles and the fixed amount for the smart base charging equipment, if applicable.
If there are equal $/tCO2e offers competing in the ranking, volume will be used as a secondary metric to assess the successful bid. The bid with the higher volume of eligible EVs requested will have the higher ranking.
If the available funds are not sufficient to cover the full amount of the bid at the cut-off point in the bid stack the office will decide, at its discretion, whether to accept the bid or not and whether the available round funds can be increased to fully incorporate this bid.
You can read more about how successful bids are determined through the
File
EV Fleets Incentive Guidelines (PDF 4.18MB).
Start the application
Bidding platform
Once you have read the guidelines and supporting documents, sign up to access the online bidding platform and participate in the reverse auction. A summary of the bidding process is detailed below.
Stage 1 - Prepare for the bid
The first step will be to select the type and number of BEVs or FCEVs you’re looking to procure.
The platform will calculate the difference in the TCO compared to vehicles that would have otherwise been purchased or leased, as well as the emissions (CO2 equivalent) saved.
Once these amounts are calculated you will be able to request funding per vehicle, and the $/tonnes CO2e (which is how you will be ranked against other bidders), will be automatically determined. Once finalised this information will be used for your initial bid.
Stage 2 - Register and place your initial bid
Formalise your bid with the information from Stage 1 with evidence:
- of annual driving distances
- to support changes made to pre-set values of the TCO calculation
- if you plan to use renewable energy to charge the new BEVs.
You will also be confirming your organisation meets eligibility requirements, is committed to any procurement costs and will meet all funding requirements.
Stage 3 - View ranking and place your final bid
At the beginning of the final bidding stage, bidders will be provided with their current ranking compared to the most competitive bidder in the stream. You can either confirm or update your bid. You will only have a week to make your final bid.
Stage 4 - Results and funding deed for successful bidders
We will contact bidders to let them know whether they have been successful.
If successful, the incentive funding deed must be signed by an authorised representative of your organisation and the department before your organisation is entitled to receive the incentive.
BEVs/FCEVs will need to be purchased and registered within 9 months and evidence provided as noted in the guidelines before funding is provided.
After the application is submitted
Successful applications will be decided by: the Office of Energy and Climate Change.
We will contact bidders to let them know whether they have been successful.
If successful, the incentive funding deed must be signed by an authorised representative of your organisation and the department before your organisation is entitled to receive the incentive.
BEVs/FCEVs will need to be purchased and registered within 9 months and evidence provided as noted in the guidelines before funding is provided.
Support and contact
More information about the grant and application process can be found on the Energy NSW website.