From introducing blue jeans to building the first motion picture theatre, California doesn’t shy away from trying new things and, when they do, they often catch on like wild fire. When it comes to the automotive world, California is a pioneer there too. California is one a few states to embrace private industry in the DMV space and companies like eTags serve vehicle owners which in turn reduces the load on the DMV itself.
Another way that California is trying to implement significant change is through its push for electric vehicles. California has led the way in the United States for electric vehicle adoption. It is increasing its investment in infrastructure, and it has an incentive program in place to entice potential buyers to choose electric over their petro-powered counterparts. But many wonder if this is enough to reach its goal of becoming 100% electric one day.
Wired recently published an article on how many countries around the world are setting ambitious goals for eliminating vehicles that are powered by fossil fuels. The United Kingdom, Norway, France, the Netherlands, India, and China have all said that they have a goal of ending gas-powered cars in the next few decades. With California having about the 6th largest economy in the world, its fitting to compare its EV efforts to that of entire nations. The biggest reason for this global change towards electric powered cars and other green technology is the effects of carbon emissions on climate change – transportation emissions account for about 14% of the world’s total greenhouse emissions.
However, setting a goal and working towards that goal is easier said than done. Electric vehicles account for only about 4% of vehicle sales around the world. Although the technology has improved and the costs have gone down, they have not reached the levels needed to truly impact the ecological problem at hand. In addition to that, the infrastructure isn’t quite there yet to assure vehicle owners that they will be able to have adequate means to charge their vehicles.
In an effort to mitigate these concerns, countries have been looking at ways to entice vehicle buyers to go electric. For example, Norway has a program where electric vehicle owners can avoid tunnel and ferry fees among others. This has convinced a quarter of vehicle purchasers to go electric. California may be considering similar measures to get people to go electric. Although it may not be able to request a ban on gas from the Federal Government anytime in the near future, it may be able to try other things out, including changing vehicle registration rules.