California is eliminating its long-standing electric vehicle rebate program and revamping the initiative to focus on supporting low-income car buyers.
The state’s Clean Cars 4 All program will be expanded starting next year. It gives those who meet the income requirements up to $12,000 to replace their older gas-powered car with a greener option. People who don't turn in an older car could get up to $7,500 in purchase grants.
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“The goal here is not to eliminate options for one group of motorists at the expense of another but to assist those who’ve been unable to purchase a cleaner vehicle and to broaden and deepen the state’s ZEV (zero-emission vehicle) fleet,” California Air Resources Board spokesman David Clegern said, per CalMatters. “We need everyone possible to afford a ZEV, and this has been part of the plan to do that for a number of years.”
Through the Clean Vehicle Rebate Project, California offers incentives to those who purchase electric vehicles. The program is sponsored by the California Air Resources Board, or CARB, and administered by the Center for Sustainable Energy. It offers rebates from $1,000 to $7,500 for those who buy or lease a new zero-emission, electric, fuel cell, and plug-in hybrid electric vehicle.
Since the program was established in 2009, half a million rebates have been issued, totaling $1.2 billion with the average rebate being around $2,500. CARB said applications for the rebates have increased in recent months, hitting a new record of 14,000 applications in July.
Critics of the project pointed to potential problems their state would face with such a rebate program. David Stevenson, director of the Center for Energy Competitiveness for the Caesar Rodney Institute, a conservative Delaware-based think tank, told the Washington Examiner that it’s “likely new vehicle buyers will need to still borrow money to buy a new vehicle despite the subsidies and they may not have the credit to do so.”
In California, an incentive to buy or lease a new electric car is access as a single-occupant vehicle to the HOV lanes. Stevenson pointed to the lack of HOV lanes in Delaware as a reason the program would do poorly in the state, along with those who rent their home having less access to at-home charging stations.
“Their subsidy program is unlikely to attract low-income buyers,” Stevenson said of California’s Clean Cars 4 All. “It will still be people in the allowed higher income brackets that will take advantage of the program.”
California leads the nation in electric vehicles
California has had the authority to enact its own emission standards since the Clean Air Act in 1970. Nearly two dozen states have chosen to adopt California’s model or some variation of the mandates.
The latest framework from California is the Advanced Clean Cars II Act, proposed by the CARB in 2022, and it requires new vehicle sales to be 100% zero emission, with full compliance set for 2035. Considered the most ambitious plan to date, it includes fuel cell electric vehicles, battery electric vehicles, and hybrid electric vehicles.
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Earlier this year, California hit its goal of selling 1.5 million zero-emission vehicles in the state by 2025. As of August, one in every four new cars sold the previous quarter were zero-emission vehicles, surpassing the state’s goal two years early.
In April, the Biden administration proposed the strictest-ever regulation with the Environmental Protection Agency requiring automakers to lower emissions from cars and light trucks by 10% per year through 2026. The move was praised by environmental groups but sharply criticized by Republicans at all levels who claim the regulations will harm the auto industry.