Mary Nichols, the head of the California Air Resources Board (CARB), has stated that it is her personal ambition to make it so automakers will only be allowed to sell electric cars in the state by 2030.
Super-clean plug-in hybrids will still be allowed, but according to Bloomberg, “Nichols wants 100 percent of the new vehicles sold to be zero- or almost-zero-emissions by 2030, in part through greater use of low-carbon fuels that she’s also promoting.” We also imagine hydrogen fuel cell vehicles will be popular, if the tech becomes cheap enough to be commercially viable by then.
However, FCA’s Sergio Marchionne is an example that not all automakers are on board with the idea. If he could, he’d stop his company making the all-electric 500e, as it’s a money pit; they lose for every one they sell. Volkswagen isn’t thrilled about the whole prospect, and other manufacturers like Mazda just seem to be blissfully ignoring all of the electrification around them.
Returning to Nichols, she will take part, along with presidential administration officials from the White House, in next year’s “review and update” for the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (or CAFE) efficiency standards, where she is expected to push her agenda.
As a reminder, these CAFE standards are to have manufacturers average out 54.5 mpg for their entire range of light-duty vehicles by 2025.
As you can imagine, trying to completely shift to electrified vehicles in showrooms, most of which will be EVs, is a very ambitious and slightly unbelievable scenario only five years after that…
If you want to hear Mary Nichols speaking… for 40 minutes, then check out her speech on carbon cycle below! read here about California’s commitment to cut petroleum use by 50 per cent over the next 15 years.