California will stop selling fuel cars in 2035

The American CNBC writes that the plans were unanimously approved by lawmakers on Thursday. The rules will only apply to the sale of new cars, from the year 2035 they must be free of harmful substances. This means that from that year onwards, in principle, only battery-electric and hydrogen-powered cars may be sold in the state. Incidentally, an exception has already been built into the new legislation: there may be limited space to continue to sell plug-in hybrids in California. The latter contrasts with the words of Governor Gavin Newsom. He calls the legislation “one of the most important steps for the disappearance of the exhaust as we know it.”

In addition to the dot on the horizon of 2035, the legislation also contains interim targets. For example, 35 percent of the cars sold by 2026 must comply with the new rules, in 2030 this will be 68 percent. news agency Bloomberg reports that currently 15 percent of all newly registered cars are EVs, so the state is already well on its way towards its first interim target.

Get there early

Incidentally, California was early when it came to environmental requirements for cars. In the 1990s, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) issued a pretty strict requirement: automakers who still wanted to sell cars in the state had to ensure that two percent of all new cars delivered in California are zero-emissions. That percentage would gradually be increased to 5 percent in 2001 and 10 percent in 2003. Later, this strict requirement was weakened, partly due to the insistence of General Motors, so that the electric cars were no longer necessary for the manufacturers to be able to sell cars in California. The strict regulations led to cars like the Toyota RAV4 EV and the General Motors EV1.