Federal support for electric vehicles is court-forced at best these days. President Donald Trump and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy have both made clear that the new administration is not a fan of the majority-electric-vehicle-future set forward by former president Joe Biden and states like California. This hostility has manifested in the removal of the $7500 EV tax credit subsidy as of next month, and a strangling of California's autonomous emissions policies.
But an end to federal electric vehicle subsidies shouldn't signal defeat, the California Air Resources Board says. The California Air Resources Board (CARB) is the state agency historically responsible for creating the Golden State's proprietary emissions policy—and, empowered by Governor Gavin Newsom, the board has made some drastic recommendations to push back against the Trump administration. Namely, instead of bowing to a lack of EV incentives, CARB suggests that California should start to "backfill the federal tax credits."
What exactly does this backfilling scheme mean for residents? Well, the gist of it is that California wants to fill in the EV incentive gaps with "point-of-sale rebates, vouchers, or other credits." Essentially, CARB believes that these sort of tax credit programs were essential to maintaining the sales flow of electrified models, and wants to continue zero-emissions sales progress by opening new incentive avenues.
"Incentives are an important component of the state’s ZEV strategy that crosscuts the need to address both the affordability of vehicles and infrastructure and to support market expansion. These options, contingent upon available resources, would provide multi-year certainty for the ZEV market and have direct benefits for consumers that impact purchasing decisions," an August CARB report sent to Governor Newsom reads.
The report comes by request of Governor Newsom's June 12 executive order focused on maintaining clean transportation strategies in California. Other CARB recommendations include funding additional infrastructure for commercial EVs, increasing access to zero-emissions vehicles for low-income buyers, and to retain carpool lane access for certain electrified vehicle owners. Additionally, CARB recommends that California adopt stronger consumer assurance measures related to electric vehicles, adding a degree of confidence in recourse should an EV purchase go awry.
The rapid-fire response from CARB recommend that officials in California take a strong stand against what they're describing as backwards progress. California has long set its own emissions rules and has dozens of states follow them in tow, but the required EPA-approval process has become contentious since President Trump took office. The federal government has axed California's ability to mandate commercial vehicle emissions levels and even failed to renew a federal waiver allowing low-emissions vehicles to use carpool lanes without the requisite amount of occupants. But California's focus on air quality is not without precedent, as CARB research shows that five of the 10 most polluted cities in the U.S. are in California.
"As federal agencies move backward, we are moving forward with a set of actions to expand clean and zero emission vehicle adoption across all vehicle types," CARB chair Liane Randolph said on a call with media. "We got a lot of advocacy around supporting an incentive program that has no income limits and no MSRP limits; other advocates felt strongly that the program should be limited to medium- and low-income residents and that there should be an MSRP cap."
It remains unclear what exactly will happen in California, but the likelihood that the Golden State will become an even stronger haven of electrified adoption is high. Randolph said that California could go as far as filling in the entire gap and offering a $7500 EV tax credit, but she also said it could be lower. Similarly, the CARB chair confirmed that California will likely hold strong on its 100-percent zero-emissions new vehicle sales by 2035. Around one in five new cars sold in California are ZEVs, with over two million zero-emissions vehicles currently on the road.
"The regulation was adopted before there was a wholesale federal assault on progress and innovation, and so I think we are going to get a lot of advocacy from stakeholders to stick to that timeline," Randolph said to reporters on August 19. "I think we’re going to get advocacy from manufacturers, for instance, who are concerned about whether they can meet that timeline, and I think that’s going to be a really robust conversation."
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