The libertarian Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) believes that Donald Trump didn’t go far enough to slash clean car standards. So it filed the first of many lawsuits to challenge the Trump administration’s rollback of Obama-era fuel efficiency rules.
When the owners of GM vehicles learn about the automaker’s failure to support strong vehicle pollution standards, its reputation goes down and sales suffer. A negative view of GM’s stance on emissions rules was shared by GM customers regardless of party affiliation. That’s the finding of a new poll of 1,000 Chevy, Buick, Cadillac, and GMC owners.
The most effective response to the COVID pandemic has come from state leadership — not the federal government. And the same thing is happening for vehicle-emission rules. Last month, Washington State became the 12th state to adopt California’s zero-emissions mandate. Next up: Minnesota and New Mexico, with Colorado and Ohio not far behind.
It’s well known that on March 31, the Trump administration gutted fuel-economy and greenhouse gas rules for model years 2021 to 2026. But what does it mean specifically for electric vehicles? Environmental law firm Beveridge & Diamond broke down the new rule, shedding light on provisions for EVs.
Washington State’s Senate narrowly passed SB 5811 this week, paving the way for the Evergreen State to become the 12th to adopt California’s zero-emissions mandate. SB 5811 passed the House in January, and Gov. Jay Inslee is expected to sign the bill.
When that happens, the entire US west coast will require that at least 5% of auto sales are EVs, increasing to 8% by 2025.
As we often report, several countries are pushing some impressive goals to transition their car fleet to electric. Now China is feeling the pressure to act because of its growing air pollution problem and the country looks likely to turn to a ZEV mandate to achieve its own goals for the transition to electric transport.
The latest draft of the proposed legislation is pushing for a relatively aggressive mandate that is already causing some panic amongst automakers heavily investing in the country now that it has become the biggest car market in the world.
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California’s ZEV mandate has been quite successful in making California an important market for electric vehicles. The idea is that automakers get ZEV credits when they sell zero-emission vehicles in the state. If they sell enough ZEVs as part of their entire sales in the market, they comply with the mandate and they will not get fined, but if they don’t sell enough, they will be fined or they can purchase ZEV credits (at a discount on the fine) from other automakers with a surplus.
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) is working on updating the program and the automotive industry is on the edge of its seat to learn the impact it will have on the Californian auto market, which is the most important in the US.
Mary Nichols, the chair of the state’s Air Resources Board, hinted this week that they were leaning toward making the mandate stricter despite some strong opposition by automakers.
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