California has been aggressively leading the fight against climate change in the United States by eliminating harmful vehicle emissions in the atmosphere. According to the latest report, the Golden State reached another milestone in this fight by surpassing its target electric vehicle vehicles two years ahead of schedule.
California's Commitment to Eliminate Climate Emissions Helped Reach EV Sales Target in Advance
As per Interesting Engineering, California has achieved an impressive feat of 1.5 million EV sales. Specifically, the latest figures from the California Energy Commission have the total zero-emission vehicle sales in the state for the first quarter of this year at 1.52 million. The state's definition of a zero-emission car can be a battery-electric, plugin-in hybrid or hydrogen fuel cell vehicle.
What makes this number special is that California set itself a target of reaching the 1.5 million mark by 2025. With this latest report, the state has already achieved this target two years in advance.
"For the last decade, California has had a goal to reach 1.5 million zero-emission vehicles by 2025. Now this goal has been surpassed nearly two years early, which is an important milestone on the journey to finally bringing clean electric transportation mainstream," Energy commission chairperson David Hochschild said.
The latest report shows that EV sales in California had been stagnant from 2018 to 2020. However, there was a spike in sales in the last two years. In fact, out of the 1.5 million sales reported in the state as of Q1 2023, about 720,000 or nearly half of the total sales had been achieved beginning in 2021, according to Los Angeles Times.
According to the executive director of Veloz, Josh D. Boone, California's latest pro-climate achievement is a combination of several factors, including efficient policy standards and the right market conditions. Veloz is a public-private non-profit organization based in Sacramento backing up the state's goal to switch to electric vehicles.
Boone said that the current market conditions allowed more people to purchase electric vehicles in the past two years. For example, California-based manufacturers have been offering 115 different makes and models of EVs. More charging stations have been created across the state, and the government offering incentives to EV users also contributed to the milestone.
Veloz stated in its report that California's current EV sales account for almost half of the U.S. total, which stands at 3.6 million. This further established the Golden State as the leader of the EV movement in the country.
"What we know in California, as a leader in the EV market is that consumers want choice, and they finally have that choice," Boone said.
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California's History of Fighting Climate Emissions
California has come a long way when it comes to eliminating car emissions. In 1990, the state addressed its smog problem stemming from the uncontrolled number of vehicles giving off harmful air pollutants. The California Air Rescue Board (CARB) created the Zero-Emission Vehicle program for this matter.
By 2020, CARB succeeded to put the smog problem under control, but the state didn't stop there - California shifted its focus to completely eradicate climate emissions. The Golden State upheld its right to regulate the air quality index by passing laws and setting up long-term goals. Interesting Engineering even noted that CARB is more ambitious in setting climate goals than the country-wide Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Aside from the target EV sales, California set itself another goal of having 250,000 EV charging stations across the state by 2025. So far, there are around 87,000 charging stations within the state.
