Planetizen Newswire
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EVs
Gov. Phil Murphy signed legislation Friday establishing an incentive program for purchasing battery electric vehicles, allowing up to a $5,000 rebate, the nation's highest, plus $500 rebates for home-chargers. EVs are already exempt from sales tax.
NJ Spotlight
A Pew Stateline article tackles the challenges of reducing carbon emissions from transportation compared to electricity generation and looks at recent initiatives announced by Washington Gov. Jay Inslee aimed at decarbonizing transportation.
Pew Stateline
While hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles are much less popular than their battery-powered siblings, California remains committed to the zero-emission technology, with three state agencies investing in and monitoring its progress.
CALmatters
Auto manufacturers will offer more battery and plug-in hybrid models this year, and the nation's largest state is expected to approve a new regulation requiring medium and heavy-duty truck manufacturers to sell zero-emission vehicles.
Government Technology
Lawmakers want to ensure that electric vehicles are accessible to all Californians, particularly lower-income motorists in disadvantaged communities. Unlike other incentive programs, participants must also scrap an older, polluting vehicle.
San Francisco Chronicle
Electric vehicle sales continue to rise, but the need for more charging infrastructure is increasing as well.
San Francisco Chronicle
To show his company's commitment to becoming carbon neutral by 2040, Jeff Bezos announced Thursday that Amazon would purchase 100,000 battery-electric delivery vans from Michigan-based Rivian. The trucks will begin service in 2021.
Bloomberg News via Transport Topics
It was long thought that a finite supply of lithium, a key element needed for electric vehicle batteries, would constrain the production of zero-emission vehicles, but the opposite happened: a slow down in EV demand has caused lithium prices to drop.
Oil Price
Nevada is one of 15 states in the Western Road Usage Charge Consortium that are considering a transition from funding their transportation budgets largely by taxing the gallons of fuel that vehicles burn to charging drivers for miles driven.
Route Fifty
Assemblyman Phil Ting seeks to dramatically increase the state electric vehicle sales rebate of $2,500, motivated in part by the phasing-out of the federal EV tax credit of $7,500. The bill rules out significant revenue sources.
The San Diego Union-Tribune
Due to the adoption of the Zero-Emission Vehicle standard by the state's air quality commission last week, there will be a much greater selection of electric vehicles available for interested Colorado consumers. Sales should reach 5% by 2023.
NGT News
Two UC Berkeley economists evaluated whether to charge electric vehicles a mileage fee since they pay no fuel taxes. A study from the Mineta Institute evaluated the impact of new EV registration fees and increased fuel taxes in California.
CityLab
Late last month, the UK became the first country to commit to a legally-binding target of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. A new academic research group recommends reduced auto ownership, regardless of how they are powered, to meet the target.
BBC News
California Assemblyman Phil Ting has tried unsuccessfully for the last two years to end the sale of new gas and diesel-powered passenger motor vehicles by 2040. He achieved some success by securing funds in an approved budget bill to study a ban.
San Francisco Chronicle
Currently, electric vehicles pay a $17.50 annual registration fee in Illinois. A bill to double the 19 cents per gallon gas tax, unchanged in almost 30 years, would also increase the EV fee over 57-fold to $1,000.
Chicago Tribune
Auto analyst John Voelcker discusses the electric vehicle market in the U.S. on NPR. Ominous clouds belie the excellent sales figures for last year, and policies pushed by Trump only ensure that motor vehicles will continue to gulp more gasoline.
NPR
Colorado will join California and nine other states in requiring that a percentage of new light-duty vehicle sales are zero-emissions, thanks to the first executive order signed by Democratic Gov. Jared Polis on Jan. 17.
Colorado Politics
U.S. sales of plug-in electric vehicles, including those with internal combustion engines, increased by 81 percent in 2018 over 2017. But if you remove the best-selling Tesla Model 3 from the mix, the increase drops to 11 percent.
Greentech Media
What's the best way to ensure that electric vehicle drivers pay to maintain the roads they drive on, considering they don't pay fuel taxes? A new report from the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies was sent to the California legislature.
UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies
As many as 215,000 owners of mostly electric vehicles purchased before 2017 lost their privilege to access carpool lanes on New Year's Day. The main purpose of HOV lanes is to reduce congestion.
Capital Public Radio
