Electric vehicles can cost a lot, but a new program coming to San Diego County may make them more accessible.

The county Board Supervisors on Wednesday unanimously approved implementing the state funded “Clean Cars 4 All” program, which provides qualified low-income residents with $5,000 to $9,500 to spend to replace their older, higher polluting vehicles with low- or zero-emissions vehicles.

Residents can replace their cars or trade their vehicle for a voucher to use with other mobility options such as public transit, car sharing, bike sharing, or electric bikes.

The supervisors’ vote instructs the San Diego Air Pollution Control District to launch the program. The district is expected to receive $5 million annually for the program, which is set to begin late next year, said county Supervisor Nathan Fletcher in a statement.


“Prices are coming down, but lower emission vehicles can still be out of the price field of many,” Fletcher said at the meeting. “This program provides between $5,000 and $10,000 in funding for qualified low income drivers. … With this action we can help tackle air pollution in our communities.”

The county has made other efforts over the past year to tackle poor air quality and increase electric vehicle ownership throughout the region.

The county set tighter regulations on industrial air pollution, launched several multimillion-dollar air quality monitoring programs — including one focused on communities in the South Bay — and adopted a multi-year plan dubbed the “electric vehicle roadmap.” That plan calls for the county to phase 501 electric vehicles into the county’s fleet by 2027 and install more than 2,000 electric vehicle chargers in the region by 2028.

Researchers and environmental advocates say the “Clean Cars 4 All” program is an important step in addressing the region’s environmental issues.


“This is gonna help make San Diego a greener city and county by ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to get into an electric car,” said Dan Jacobson, director of the environmental advocacy group Environment California, adding it helps make electric cars more accessible for the “average Jane and Joe instead of just the Malibu billionaires.”

He noted, for example, that someone could buy a used Nissan Leaf — a modest electric car — for about $13,000 in some places and, if they qualify, rebates under the Clean Cars 4 All program could be as high as $9,500, meaning someone who qualified for the low-income rebate under the program could end up paying $4,000 to turn their old “clunker” in for a Leaf, he said.

New electric cars range higher, from $17,090 for the Mini Cooper SE Electric announced this week to many models costing six figures.

Jacobson said the Clean Cars 4 All program has already made a positive impact in other communities where it has been implemented.


Originally established in 2016 under a different name, the Clean Cars 4 All program was broadened in 2017 and now includes three air quality control districts besides San Diego: the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, the San Joaquin Air Pollution Control District and the South Coast Air Quality Management District, which represents Los Angeles County, Orange County and others.

San Joaquin and South Coast were the first districts to implement it.

In the South Coast district, more than 100 people are applying for the program each month, and the outreach effort has helped people replace more than 2,000 vehicles since the program began, according to a report released this month by UCLA’s Luskin Center for Innovation.

More work needs to be done, Jacobson said, and San Diego County will need an awareness campaign and outreach efforts to make the program live up to its potential.


“This is a great program to make sure everyone can enjoy the benefits of clean, electric transportation,” said Jacobson. “It’s working, but we need a lot more people to tap into program.”