Automotive

California bans new combustion car sales from 2035

California has announced it's phasing out new combustion car and light truck sales, with 100% of sales from 2035 to be zero-emissions vehicles
California has announced it's phasing out new combustion car and light truck sales, with 100% of sales from 2035 to be zero-emissions vehicles

Following a similar decision in the European Union, the state of California has announced it's phasing out new sales of diesel and gasoline cars by 2035, setting aggressive targets along the way. This move will have dramatic effects across the USA.

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) has long held automakers to stricter emissions standards than those imposed by the US federal government, but when it finalized its vote Thursday on the new Advanced Clean Cars II rule, it threw down a massive challenge to the automotive industry.

Currently, some 16% of new cars and light trucks sold in California are classed as zero emissions vehicles (ZEVs). Under the new ruling, that proportion will leap to 35% by 2026, 51% by 2028, 76% by 2031, and 100% by 2035, after which combustion cars and light trucks will simply be banned from sale altogether.

There's some little bits of wiggle room; the definition of a ZEV is broad enough to include a percentage of plug-in hybrids, provided that they can go more than 50 miles (80 km) on battery alone, and these won't be allowed to exceed more than 20% of an automaker's total ZEV sales. The ban doesn't affect heavy trucks at this stage. Furthermore, the law doesn't require combustion car owners to get rid of cars they already own, or stop people from buying or selling used combustion vehicles after 2035.

Indeed, if you absolutely must have that 2036-model F350, it'll be possible for people to go interstate and buy one there, although many other states –including Colorado, Massachusetts, Maine, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York and Oregon – have signed on to follow California's regulations on ZEVs, and Washington has announced its own intentions to ban combustion cars by 2035 as well.

CARB expects this radical and unprecedented move to slash vehicle emissions – the #1 source of anthropogenic carbon emissions – by 50% in 2040, paving the way for a race to zero emissions by 2050. In addition to being a strong action in support of decarbonization, CARB says it expects the air quality improvements will add up to some US$13 billion in health care savings.

Next, to clean up the energy sector that's going to feed this enormous influx of battery-powered beasts.

Source: CARB

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12 comments
moreover
It's good that they do this in stages rather than just pointing to 2035. If I proclaimed to lose 20 pounds by 2035 I'd be unlikely to succeed if I started doing something about it in late 2024.
Username
This seems like more appeasement towards the car manufacturers and big oil. They should have said you can finish any started production run with current stock then switch to electrics.
Mike Vidal
They do not have the power infrastructure to support this, work on that first.
PB
I deeply resent flakey government forcing this change down our throats.
If the "green" technology was any good then consumers would flock to it but the entire electric car concept is flawed.
Not enough chargers, slow charging en route to anywhere, a grid that is inadequate (we will get messages asking us to not charge our cars between 4 pm and 9 pm because the grid is stressed).
If I need to drive my battery driven car from Los Angeles to San Francisco nd back, I will need to stop twice for recharging each way and I will be competing with other toy car drivers who need a recharge. There are a hundred thousand vehicles a day taking the 5 freeway north and south, all having to stop for a recharge and that clearly is not going to work.
I'm beginning to see Prius's being towed because they run out of battery charge ..... this is just insane, foisting this on the public.
Westtrekker
This is very slow positioning given that Detroit, Japan, Germany and Italy have announced that they will be halting Gasser production cars and pickups in 2025/6.
Don't worry about the Grid, they have thought this out.
@PB this is coming from the "government" but from the Manufacturers! So, get off your horse.
CAVUMark
I would just like to see the develop of the Star Trek transporter so we can forget about this automobile nonsense.
Erik
Hopefully they lower the price of electric vehicles in that time frame then.
Hasler
We have yet to see how voters react to zero ICE. What will cars cost when demand for lithium doubles year on year? Will the power grid be able cope with dramatic increase in demand, or will EV charging become rationed? What fees will be introduced to replace the taxes lost on gas? Maybe some politicians will see potential popularity in being against these compulsory changes!
Uncle Anonymous
While this will have an effect on pollution, I don't know that it will be enough. And, if that's the case, what will be the next big thing to phase out? The option to leave all the oil in the ground isn't realistic because of the huge number of products used every day that are made in part or in whole from petroleum. It's fine for the eco-militants to rant about the evils of oil in their aggressive moral absolutism but the reality is that without oil we would all be living short brutal lives.
TpPa
They are nuts! Where as I would love to see cars carbon foot print drop to zero, we are no where near ready for it. Our electrical infrastructure has been called fragile & outdated by the so called experts for years, major cities go into blackouts when everyone fires up their a/c. We are having much more acclimate weather where major storms knock out the power for days & sometimes weeks.
Then there is the issues of there is only a fraction of charging stations that will be needed, and even then most of them besides Tesla's are deemed unreliable by users. Get all that fixed somehow without spending trillions of dollars in tax payers money, unless the government gets the proceeds from electric bills & the charging stations.