Governors from eight states today announced a groundbreaking initiative to put 3.3 million zero-emission vehicles on the roads in their states by 2025, along with the refueling infrastructure required to support those vehicles.
The governors comes from California, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Oregon, Maryland, Rhode Island, New York and Vermont. Together, they already comprise 23% of the nation’s electric car sales.
These states are among a group of states which have adopted rules requiring about 15 percent of new vehicles sold to be zero-emission vehicles by 2025.
Zero-emission vehicles include battery-electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid-electric vehicles, and hydrogen fuel-cell-electric vehicles; the technologies can be applied in passenger cars, trucks and transit buses.
“This is not just an agreement, but a serious and profoundly important commitment,” Gov. Jerry Brown said in a statement prepared for the ceremony. “From coast to coast, we’re charging ahead to get millions of the world’s cleanest vehicles on our roads.”
The 3.3 million zero-emission vehicles would represent a new vehicle market penetration for the group of states of about 15%, said Mary Nichols, Chairman of the California Air Resources Board (ARB), during a conference call announcing the agreement. This multi-state effort is intended to expand consumer awareness and demand for zero-emission vehicles. Collectively, the eight signatory states represent more than 23% of the US car market.
Under the agreement, the signatory states agreed to create and to participate in a multi-state ZEV Program Implementation Task Force to serve as a forum for coordination and collaboration on the full range of program support and implementation issues to promote effective and efficient implementation of ZEV regulations.
Each state will report annually on the number of ZEVs registered in its jurisdiction; the number of electric/hydrogen fueling stations open to the public; and available information regarding workplace fueling for ZEVs.
As a first step in this plan, the governors agreed to pursue the following efforts:
– Harmonize building codes to make it easier to construct new electric car charging stations
– Lead by example by including zero emission vehicles in their public fleets
– Evaluate and establish, where appropriate, financial and other incentives to promote zero emission vehicles
– Consider establishing favorable electricity rates for home charging systems; and
– Develop common standards for roadway signs and charging networks.
The eight states will develop an action plan over the next six months that will include many of these strategies and others.
The states also agreed to share research and a coordinated education and outreach campaign to highlight the benefits of ZEVs and advance their utilization.
U.S. electric car sales in 2012 more than tripled to about 52,000 from 17,000 in 2011. Motorists bought more than 40,000 plug-in cars in the first and second quarters of 2013.
There are currently 16 zero-emission vehicle models available from eight automotive manufacturers; nine run completely on batteries, two on hydrogen fuel cells and five are plug-in hybrid electric vehicles that can run on gasoline as well as battery power. The number of models is expected to increase for model year 2014 and beyond. Several electric vehicle models have won awards for safety, performance and customer satisfaction over the past couple of years.
There are already more than 6,700 charging stations open to the public in the signatory states. By 2015 nearly every major automaker will have zero emission vehicles available for sale or lease, and more than 200,000 zero-emission vehicles are expected to be on the road across the U.S.
