The sales figures, which are tracked by the California Air Resources Board, means that Californians buy approximately 40 percent of all plug-in vehicles sold in the United States. From December 2010 through August 2014 -- a time period that saw the Chevy Volt, Nissan Leaf and Tesla Model S first hit the market -- Californians have purchased 102,440 plug-ins.
"It's not just that we have more PEVs (plug-in electric vehicles) than any other state," said Christine Kehoe, executive director of the California Plug-In Electric Vehicle Collaborative. "It's more than any other country. Electric vehicles are popular in Norway, but there they are still in the thousands."
Advocates, automakers and policy experts say California's policy innovation, including state rebates that helped the new market grow, has been as critical as the technology itself.
"We're still in early days," said Richard Lowenthal, chief technology officer of Campbell-based ChargePoint, which makes networked charging stations for electric vehicles. "We have an early adopter mentality, and California is a good place to roll out new technology. But sales of electric vehicles are going very well in general. Nationally, we should hit a quarter of a million cars any day."
California Gov. Jerry Brown has an ambitious goal of seeing 1 million zero-emission vehicles on the roads in California by 2025.
But for many Californians, a new electric car remains far out of their price range. Many residents are struggling to simply buy gas to work.
Brown is expected to sign several bills in the coming weeks that will slowly phase out rebates for the wealthy, further target incentives for clean vehicles toward low- and middle-income families across the state and make it easier for tenants and apartment dwellers to install charging stations in their buildings.
The Clean Vehicle Rebate Project, funded by the California Air Resources Board, offers rebates for the purchase or lease of new, eligible zero-emission and plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles. The Ford Focus Electric, Tesla Model S and Nissan Leaf are among those that qualify for $2,500 rebates.
Championed by Sen. Kevin de León, D-Los Angeles, SB 1275 directs the Air Resources Board to establish an income cap on the Clean Vehicle Rebate Program. Additionally, SB 1275 would allow low-income residents to combine existing incentives for a potential of $7,000 toward the purchase or lease of an electric vehicle. Low-income families could get $1,500 for retiring a high-polluting clunker, along with a $3,000 replacement voucher toward purchasing a new vehicle.
"Forty percent of greenhouse gas emissions come from the transportation system," said Vien Truong, environmental equity director for the Greenlining Institute, one of several organizations that supports the bill. "The only way we can chip away at that 40 percent is to make sure working families have access to clean transportation options. It's not just about the cars. It's about giving transportation choices to people across the income strata."
Rebates totaling $149 million have already been awarded to more than 71,000 individual California residents, according to the Center for Sustainable Energy, which manages the Clean Vehicle Rebate program for the Air Resources Board. Of that, more than $23 million in rebates were awarded to 10,937 consumers in Santa Clara County; roughly $1 million in rebates were awarded to 502 consumers in Fresno. In Alameda County, 5,730 consumers were awarded rebates of roughly $12 million while in Contra Costa County 2,755 consumers were awarded rebates of $5.6 million. Sprawling Los Angeles County awarded $38 million in rebates to 19,350 consumers.
©2014 the San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.)
