California Clean Air Vehicle Decal program to expire on September 30 originally appeared on L.A. Mag.
The California Clean Air Vehicle Decal program, which incentivizes the use of clean air vehicles by granting cars with an EV sticker access to carpool lanes, will end on September 30. The program aims to encourage California consumers to purchase electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids, and hydrogen fuel cell cars by helping them avoid the stop-and-go traffic prevalent in major cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles.
The end of an electric vehicle incentive program will not just be seen in California, but in 13 other states. These programs are ending because states need authorization from the federal government to keep these initiatives in place, as money from the federal government funds state highway systems.
The recently signed into law, “Big Beautiful Bill” is not the reason behind these incentive cuts. Instead, the federal government’s inaction is what is taking these programs away. The authorization just happened to expire this year, but the federal government is choosing not to renew it. If Congress does not choose to renew the authorization by September 30, the EV stickers will no longer grant access to the HOV lane on October 1, according to the California Department of Motor Vehicles website.
The California Legislature worked towards an extension on this initiative, creating Assembly Bill 2678, which extended the California Clean Air Vehicle Decal program to Jan 1, 2027, which was signed by Newsom. The last piece of the legislative puzzle is for Congress and President Trump to sign the California bill for it to pass.
Despite this, there will still be an opening for the California Clean Air Vehicle Decal program to be reinstated, according to Curt Augustine, who is the senior director of state affairs at the Alliance for Automotive Innovation.
“If it doesn’t get done by Oct. 1, we are more hopeful that it could get done sometime next year,” Augustine said. “We don’t want a gap in the timing because that’s very confusing to consumers — but having a gap in the program is better than having no program at all.”
This story was originally reported by L.A. Mag on Aug 7, 2025, where it first appeared.
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