The California Air Resources Board announced that the green stickers for carpool lanes have reached their limit as of Dec. 18, 2015. New owners of electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids will no longer have access to carpool lanes in the state of California.
New owners of all-electric and hybrid vehicles in the state of California will not be given green stickers that will allow them to access the state's carpool lanes because 85,000 stickers have already been issued. Until a new legislation has been passed, the issuance of green stickers will be at a halt to avoid carpool lane congestions.
On the other hand, new all-electric vehicles are eligible for the state's carpool lane program. The California Department of Motor Vehicles has made an "unlimited" number of stickers for all-electric vehicles and is still accepting applications for the carpool program, although approved applications will have to wait for their stickers until new legislation is passed.
This issue is a bit of a hit or a miss as it depends upon whether or not a new legislation will be passed and whether or not the state's carpool program will reach an extension. While the state's motor vehicle department accepts applications, applicants will simply have to wait until they get approvals.
If new legislation for California's carpool lanes will not be passed, the hybrid plug-in program will come to a stop. This problem also happened to conventional hybrid car owners for their yellow stickers that were also limited to 85,000.
The California green car incentive program managed by the state's Air Resources Board announced that the green stickers for carpool lanes have been reached since Dec. 18, 2015. These stickers have been used by extended-range electric vehicles and conventional hybrid plug-ins like the first generation Chevrolet Volt, the Cadillac ELR and the BMW i3 Rex.
The green stickers were capped originally at 40,000, but the limit has been raised multiple times as part of the state budget. Carpool lane exceptions have now been extended to Jan. 1, 2019, and green stickers will be valid until then. As for the yellow stickers for hybrid vehicles, it is no longer valid as the program expired on June 30, 2011.
