California’s affinity for electric vehicles is widely known, but over 1.5 million zero-emission vehicles (ZEV) have been sold in the state so far. That’s two years ahead of a goal set by then Governor Jerry Brown in 2012, and government officials spent Friday patting themselves on the back for handing out nearly $2 (£1.6 / €1.8) billion in incentives to make it happen.
Governor Gavin Newsom’s office says 21.1% of new vehicles sold in California this year were ZEVs and buyers snapped up 124,053 of them in the first quarter. That helped to push the state’s total number of ZEV sales to 1,523,966 units to date.
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Sticking with statistics, 40% of ZEVs sold in the United States are purchased in California. The state went on to claim “California has more ZEVs than New Hampshire has cars, twice as many ZEVs as Wyoming has cars, and more than twice as many ZEVs as Norway.” Officials added the state is home to 55 ZEV and ZEV-related manufacturers, and leads the nation in ZEV manufacturing jobs with Tesla being the best-known example.
California aims to have all-new passenger vehicles be ZEVs by 2035 and the governor’s office noted residents can get up to $24,500 in grants and rebates. These are offered through the Vehicle Retirement Consumer Assistance Program and the Clean Vehicle Rebate Project – among others.
In a statement, Governor Newsom said “No other state in the nation is doing as much as we are to accelerate our electric and zero emissions future.” He went on to claim, “California is setting the bar for climate action and we’re achieving our goals years ahead of schedule thanks to unprecedented investments secured in partnership with the Legislature.”
