As expected, the California Air Resources Board voted Thursday to adopt sweeping year-over-year targets to eliminate the sale of new cars and trucks powered by internal combustion engines in the state by 2035.
The board approved the mandate in a unanimous vote, which codifies and adds specifics to an executive order issued in the fall of 2020 by Gov. Gavin Newsom aimed at drastically reducing vehicle emissions.
The new standard will have significant impacts beyond the Golden State because California s for about 10 percent of all new vehicle sales in the U.S. and 16 states follow California’s lead when they set their own emissions standards.
“This is a historic moment for California, for our partner states and for the world as we set forth this path to a more zero-emissions future,” said Liane Randolph, chair of the Air Resources Board, known as CARB for short.
The regulation requires at least 35 percent of model year 2026 enger cars and trucks sold in California will be electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids or hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. The numbers ramp up each year, going to 68 percent in 2030 and 100 percent by 2035.
CARB’s new rules also impose requirements that include:
- all-electric and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles will need a minimum range of 150 miles to qualify
- plug-in hybrids must increase their all-battery range to at least 50 miles
- a cap will be placed on the number of plug-in hybrids sold — no more than 20 percent of all sales will be allowed each year in order to encourage sales of cars and trucks that emit no emissions
- by model year 2030, all batteries must maintain at least 80 percent of their ability to hold a charge for eight years or 150,000 miles, and
- drive train components are covered for at least three years or 50,000 miles.
More than 50 people addressed the board during the public comment period of the meeting in Sacramento, either in person or via webcast.
“This is the most important and transformative action CARB has ever taken,” said Daniel Sperling, a board member since 2007, “and it has global implications.”
Carmakers have accelerated their production of electric vehicles, known as EVs, and have stepped up plans to introduce more makes and models in the coming years. A number of automaker representatives appeared before the board Thursday to say they ed the new regulation, although some expressed concerns.
Laurie Holmes of Kia Worldwide said the targets will be “extremely challenging” and cited issues such as high material costs, strained supply chains and not enough charging stations.
“Healthy charging infrastructure is essential to ensure that driving an EV is as convenient as driving today’s traditional vehicles,” Holmes said.
Others worried whether drivers in rural areas, lower-income communities and small businesses could get left behind.
“This is just adding another expense to my business,” said Marcus Gomez, owner of a clothing recycling firm and a regional director for the California Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. “I don’t know how you’re going to come up with all these electric medium-sized vehicles when you can’t even buy a gas vehicle right now in the time that you’ve allotted here.”
To help address equity issues, staffer Anna Wong of CARB’s Sustainable Transportation and Communities Division said the targets are complemented by the recently ed state budget that earmarks $2.7 billion this fiscal year and $3.9 billion over three years for infrastructure and “clean mobility options for California’s most environmentally and economically burdened communities.”
Board member Hector De La Torre compared adoption of EVs to the growth of gas stations that spurred the spread of automobiles in the 20th century.
“We are way ahead of that transition in 2022 in California, and we’re going to keep pushing the bar,” he said. De La Torre predicted the prices of EVs will drop and equal the costs of gas-powered cars and trucks by 2025 or 2030.
“Zero-emission options are going to be available at price parity with internal combustion engines sooner rather than later, certainly in the time of this regulation,” he said.
As for how the vehicle targets will work, the regulation does not put the onus on California car dealers. The burden will be on manufacturers to deliver sufficient inventory of zero-emission vehicles onto dealers’ lots.
“It’s the automakers that are in compliance,” Joshua Cunningham, chief of CARB’s advanced clean cars branch, told the Union-Tribune earlier this week. “We require them to report to us every year with how many cars they’ve sold. And that gets tracked against the actual annual requirement.”
What if the year-over-year targets prove harder to meet than anticipated?
“The key things we do with any regulation, and we’ll certainly be monitoring this one closely, is how is the market doing,” said Jennifer Gress, chief of CARB’s Sustainable Transportation and Communities Division, in a call with reporters Wednesday. “So we will continue monitoring the implementation of this regulation and we always reserve the right to come back and propose amendments if we feel they are warranted.”
CARB estimates the mandate will reduce smog-forming emissions from enger vehicles by more than 25 percent in 2037.
