Tesla made about $354 million in Q1 2020 by selling regulatory credits. Fiat Chrysler and General Motors, among others, buy billions of dollars in CO2 credits a year to avoid paying fines. What if a similar credit system to get individuals to drive an electric car, or avoid driving altogether, were put in place? That’s what the Beijing Environmental Exchange launched today.
On Thursday, California’s Air Resources Board had a meeting and status update on the state’s ‘Zero Emission Vehicle’ (ZEV) program where industry actors expressed their views on the clean vehicle market and the ZEV credit mandate. During a presentation to the board, Tesla’s Vice President of Business Development Diarmuid O’Connell argued that lobbying efforts from automakers effectively delayed fuel economy in the U.S. by about 20 years.
He added that the automotive industry used similar lobbying tactics to delay the commercialization of Zero Emission Vehicles. He said the effort delayed the state of California’s initial 1998 goal of 2% market penetration by 16 years – Zero Emission vehicles only reached 2% of the market in 2014.
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