On Thursday, the governors of eight states pledged to get
3.3m zero-emission
vehicles on roadways by 2025 in an effort to curb greenhouse gas pollution. In
the eight states includes California and New York
To sign a memorandum of understanding, representatives
from all eight states were to assemble in Sacramento. This would raise
infrastructure and make other alternations to help increase market share for
electric cars, hydrogen fuel-cell electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids. The
expectations are in 2015, there should be more than 200,000 zero emissions
vehicles on the road.
“This agreement is a major step forward to reducing the
emissions that are causing our climate to change and unleashing the extreme
weather that we are experiencing with increased frequency,” New York Governor
Andrew M Cuomo said in a statement.
The other states such as Massachusetts, Maryland, Oregon,
Connecticut, Rhode Island and Vermont are also involve in the agreement. All in
all the eight states represent about 23 percent of the US auto market.
Every state has already separately agreed to policies to
entail a percentage of new vehicles sold to be zero emission by 2025.
California’s authorization alone of 15.4% calls for a total of 1.5m
zero-emission vehicles to be on the state’s roads by that time.
It’s a precipitous curve. Today in California,
plug-in-hybrids and electric vehicles make up less than 2% of the auto market.
First, the states will institute a taskforce to
contribute ideas that will help inflate the network of charging and fueling
stations necessary to make electric and hydrogen-fueled vehicles more striking
to consumers, all under terms of the memorandum.
“The idea is to broaden the pool of people talking about
this and working their way through the challenges that come up in setting up
this kind of infrastructure, and growing this kind of a market,” said Dave
Clegern, a spokesman for California’s Air Resources Board, which regulates auto
emissions.
Now, there are 16 zero-emission vehicles from eight
manufacturers on the market; nine that run on batteries alone, two hydrogen
fuel cell cars and five plug-in hybrid models, which can run on battery alone
or gasoline.
Officials say that every automaker will have a
zero-emission model by 2015.
According to car dealers, who are under pressure to help
meet these 2025 goals, getting fueling infrastructure like charging stations in
place quickly is the only way to get average consumers used to a new product
that requires new driving habits.
“We think that is going to be necessary for some of the
range anxiety and other acceptance barriers that need to be broken down,” said
Brian Maas, president of the California New Car Dealers Association.
“The cars are coming – they’re here already – but if you
don’t have a place to charge them, there’s not going to be the level of
consumer acceptance.”
Governors signing the memorandum all addressed the
cooperative exertion as a way to hurriedly resolve the foreseeable problems
that occur when making such far-reaching adjustments in people’s everyday
lives.
Furthermore some observe future economic benefits from
the switch to new vehicles.
Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick said more electric
vehicles are key to his state’s efforts grow the region’s economy.
“Diversifying transportation fuels and providing drivers
with options will help reduce vulnerability to price swings in imported oil
that hurt consumers and our economy,” Patrick said in a statement.
