12 July 2019, Lower Saxony, Hanover: A plug of a charging station for electric cars of the energy supplier Enercity. The densest network of electricity filling stations in Germany is to be built in Hanover. Photo: Christophe Gateau/dpa (Photo by
picture alliance via Getty Images
In an eight-to-one vote, the Air Quality Control Commission in Colorado adopted California’s Zero-Emission Vehicle program today. It is the 11th state to do so, and it means that automakers will now need to offer more electric vehicles there.
The official sales target for zero or low-emission vehicles is more than five percent by 2023, with an increase to six percent by 2025. As in California, the number of credits an automaker earns for the sale of an EV is based on the car’s range and there is no enforcement mechanism that forces anyone in Colorado buy an EV. Instead, the pressure is on automakers to make a wider variety of EVs available in the state. The action fits right in with “the commission’s mission to achieve the cleanest air practical in every part of the state,” according to a release put out by the AQCC itself.
“[This] is a clear demonstration of our unrelenting commitment to making sure every Coloradan has clean air to breathe.”
“The adoption of the zero-emission vehicle standard is a clear demonstration of our unrelenting commitment to making sure every Coloradan has clean air to breathe,” said Jill Hunsaker Ryan, the department’s executive director, in a statement.
The automakers will be allowed to bank some ZEV credits for the EVs they sell before 2023, including some from EV sales in other states. Both the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers and the Association of Global Automakers approved of this part of the rules.
The Colorado Automobile Dealers Association, unsurprisingly, was against the state adopting the California mandate at all, actually saying that making auto dealers in the state sell more electric vehicles would be a “threat to tradition.” The reason? EVs require less maintenance, which means lower profits for the auto dealers. In fact, the state’s Air Pollution Control Division “estimated that over the lifetime of an electric vehicle, the maintenance and repair costs are about one-third to one-half less than a conventional vehicle,” according to the Colorado Sun, and that is not something the dealers want to see come to reality.
The Union Of Concerned Scientists encouraged Colorado to adopt the ZEV mandate in an article earlier this month. The reasons are likely obvious to anyone who knows the environmental benefits of EVs, but UCS noted that Colorado “is already experiencing the impact of climate change, driven by combustion of fossil fuels. … While the impact will be small initially compared to the number of gasoline cars on the road, the most important part of adopting the ZEV regulation will be to put Colorado on a clear path forward towards moving away from gasoline and towards lower emissions.” That’s just what happened today.
