Electric Vehicles

The federal government recently announced a suite of measures to tackle the nation’s pollution from transportation, particularly from heavy duty vehicles like trucks and buses. 

California’s Governor Newsom is deliberating hundreds of bills, including several key policies to advance sustainable land use, bike safety, vehicle electrification, and accessibility.

Jay Inslee vetoed a bill from the Washington State Legislature that would have phased out gasoline powered vehicles requiring all light-duty vehicles sold, bought, or registered in the state to be electric by 2030.

Biden’s climate pledge demonstrates the type of ambitious climate leadership that can encourage real policy change. However, on its own, this commitment is insufficient. The real action happens in the policymaking that will help meet these commitments.

This year’s offering of Super Bowl electric vehicle advertising was a retreat from last year, offering fewer ads from fewer brands. Advertising is necessary (though it needs to be sustained and pervasive) but it is far from sufficient to encourage people to transition to EVs. Advertising is not going to solve the problem of where to charge or address the range “anxiety” that people have been told they will have if they buy an EV.

Governor Gavin Newsom is proposing a $4.5 billion economic recovery plan to kick off the 2021-2022 budget. Alongside helping Californians and small businesses through the COVID-19 pandemic, the proposed recovery plan will dedicate a third of the budget to the transition to zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) by 2035.

As part of the commonwealth’s goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, the Governor of Massachusetts has released a plan to dramatically reduce carbon emissions over the next decade. A crucial component of that plan includes a requirement that by 2035, all new light-duty vehicle sales must be zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs).

The Alliance for Automotive Innovation creates an agenda including incentives, job programs, and investments in infrastructure to accelerate the electrification of the transportation sector in the US. This coincides with the California Public Utilities Commission pushing the Automated Vehicles (AVs) Program from the pilot to deployment phase.

The UK will ban the sales of gasoline cars by 2030, setting the stage for an all electric vehicle market by 2035.