By Jim Motavalli · October 24, 2013





In unity there is strength. That’s the idea behind a new eight-state coalition that is aiming to put 3.3 million zero emission cars on the road by 2025. The group, which announced its plans on Thursday, includes plug-in hybrids (which aren’t strictly zero emission) in its head count.

The eight states signing the cooperative agreement are California, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island and Vermont. If you guessed they are all states that follow California’s emissions rules, you’d be right.

The Action Plan

According to Stanley Young, a spokesman for the powerful California Air Resources (CARB), “Eight California emission states are standing up and putting forward an action plan that will make it easier to own and operate electric cars. They’re making a decided effort to make it work, and paving the way for the successful introduction of zero emission vehicles.”

The governors (whose states represent 23 percent of the U.S. auto market, and host 6,700 public EV chargers between them) said they would:

Work on building codes to make it easier to get electric vehicle chargers installed;

Put EVs in their public fleets;

Arrange for financial incentives “where appropriate.”

That’s good because some of these states, including Massachusetts and Connecticut, do not yet provide impressive EV subsidies. Massachusetts has only programs for municipal fleets, and Connecticut provides no tax benefits for consumer buyers (though charging stations are incentivized). And both these states have virtual Democratic monopolies—they don’t have President Obama’s problems in getting legislation passed.

Land of Steady Habits

Connecticut State Senator Bob Duffy points out that tax breaks aren’t popular in his state—the only existing one benefits families with kids in college. And rebates appear to be a non-starter politically. “The feeling was we had to get our own financial house in order before we could do something like that,” Duffy said. New York has powerful programs for electric trucks, and $2 million for EVs—but they’re still accepting proposals as to how to spend the money.

One of the better programs (outside of California, which just refunded its $2,500 EV rebate) is in Maryland, which has both EV and charger tax credits. They cover up to 20 percent of the cost of an EVSE and up to $1,000 per EV. Oregon also likes chargers, with rebates that cover 25 percent of the cost of a home unit (up to $750) and 35 percent of the cost of a business charger.

Three Cheers for ZEVs

Mark Cooper of the Consumer Federation of America, a big EV booster, likes the new coalition. "U.S. automakers failed to ride the wave of the ‘hybrid revolution’ in the 1990s, and that failure proved to be a costly one," he said. “U.S. automakers need to be at the leading edge of technological innovation to succeed in the increasingly competitive global auto industry...The ZEV program will give U.S. auto makers a leg up in their most important market.”

Coincidentally, the eight-state consortium was announced around the same time as the release of a Union of Concerned Scientists "backgrounder" that aims to combat ignorance about EVs. It points out that sales of plug ins are up significantly over last year, and that 59,000 were sold by the end of August in the U.S.—surpassing sales for all of 2012. And in California, sales are double last year’s rate, and represent 29 percent of all plug-in sales. Go California, which is leading the new coalition by example.