California on Wednesday made its plan public for mandating a steady increase in the sale of electric and zero-emissions vehicles, the first step in enacting a goal of prohibiting new gasoline-powered cars by 2035 before any other state of the US so far.
According to the proposed rule, issued by the California Air Resources Board (CARB), the state will need 35 percent of new passenger vehicles sold in the state by 2026 to be sourced from batteries or hydrogen. Less than a decade later, the state expects 100 percent of the new car sales to be rid of the fossil fuel emissions largely responsible for warming the planet.
Presently, about 12.4 percent of new vehicles sold in California are zero-emissions, according to CARB.
If the board happens to finalize the plan in August, it could set the bar for the country’s automobile industry.
“This is tremendously important,” said Daniel Sperling, a member of California’s air board.
“Other countries and other states, they watch what California does,” Sperling said.
“And so this will reverberate around the world.”
