Governor of California Gavin Newsom signed an executive order yesterday (September 23) that aims to ban the sale of ICE cars and lorries in the state by 2035. After this time all vehicles sold will need to have zero emissions in the fight against air quality and climate change.
While it seems like a radical plan for the car-centric state of California, many argue this isn’t early enough and the date needs to be brought forward to have the desired change. Other states, including Hawaii and Washington, have already proposed the banning of ICE cars and vehicles by 2030.
With California suffering forest fires, heat waves, lightening storms and other extreme weather conditions in recent years, it’s obvious that something is happening in regard to the climate. It doesn’t help that transportation accounts for around 40 percent of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions. This compares to 28 percent for the US as a whole, so change is required, and soon.
Banning the sales of ICE cars will slow down the pace of the greenhouse emissions, but there will still be ICE vehicles on the road coughing out pollution. The big change will happen once all ICE cars and trucks are banned from the roads.
California currently accounts for roughly half of the electric plug-in vehicle sales in the US, but this is still only a small percentage (7.7 percent in 2019) for the state. Hopefully, with all the big brand car manufacturers having electric cars in their ranges, and many of the new electric car start-ups including Lucid Air, Rivian and Tesla, being based in the state, it will help to see electric vehicle use increase at a faster pace.
