Gov. Newsom said the sales bump shows a trend toward clean transportation, but detractors said he’s cherry-picking data.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Aug. 6 that statewide sales of zero-emission vehicles had risen by almost 10,000 cars in the second quarter of 2024 compared to the first three months of the year.
Californians bought 118,000 zero-emission vehicles in the second quarter, which amounted to 26 percent of all new vehicle sales, according to a
press release.
The rise in sales comes nearly four years after the governor signed an
executive order in 2020 requiring all new car sales in California to be zero-emission vehicles by 2035.
“Our policies helped lay the groundwork for our transition to clean cars—and now Californians are making the switch in record numbers,” Newsom said in the press release.
Since Newsom’s 2020 executive order, nearly 2 million clean-air vehicles have been sold in California, according to the
governor’s office.
More than one-third of the country’s new zero-emission vehicles are sold in California and 60 manufacturers related to the industry are currently operating in the state, officials said.
More than 100,000 public or private electric vehicle chargers have also been installed throughout California, according to the office, and more than 500,000 at-home chargers.
Amid the governor’s announcement on second-quarter sales in California, Republican lawmakers have pushed back on the notion that it represents a success for the state, saying the governor is cherry-picking data.
“Car sales are down, EV sales are down, and the economy is down, this is not the time for bluster and braggadocio. It’s time to roll up our sleeves and fix California,” said state Sen. Brian Jones, a Republican, in an Aug. 7 statement.
According to a July
report from the California New Car Dealers Association, new vehicle registrations have declined year-to-date by 0.7 percent compared with last year.
Popular electric car manufacturer Tesla has shown a significant decline in registration, dropping 17 percent from July 2023 to July 2024, per their report.
Sales
figures from Veloz, a nonprofit advocate for electric vehicles, show that 441,283 such cars were sold in California in 2023, up 43 percent from 2022. Sales for the first half of 2024, however, were 227,009, on pace to top last year’s total only slightly.
California also moved toward its goal of increasing zero-emission transportation infrastructure statewide this year when the state Energy Commission approved a $1.9 billion investment plan that will result in the construction of 40,000 electric vehicle chargers over the next four years, according to a
press release from the commission.
“By investing a bulk of funds to benefit low-income and disadvantaged communities, the state is making sure communities most in need have better access to chargers and less pollution from trucks and buses,” said Patty Monahan, the commission’s lead commissioner for transportation, in a
statement.
