According to a new California Energy Commission (CEC) report released on Wednesday, over 25% of all cars sold in the second quarter of 2023 were electric, putting California on pace to have 100% all electric car sales by 2035.
While electric cars have seen steady growth in California since the 2000’s, the state didn’t see a drastic rise in sales until 2020. Between 2018 and 2020, sales lingered at around 7%-8% of all new cars sold being electric.
However, in September 2020, Gavin Newsom issued an order of a staggered plan requiring that 35% of all new cars sold in California in 2026 to be electric or hybrids, 68% by 2030, and 100% by 2035.
Newsom’s order was quickly met with criticism. While many car manufacturers were generally in line to do so, many in state and federal government, including the head of the EPA, questioned the decision. However, after gas prices rose to new highs earlier this year nationwide, with Californians seeing amongst the highest in the nation, public and governmental reception warmed. Despite numerous problems associated with the 2035 plan, including concerns of enough electricity being available to power cars and battery component issues that could potentially make the 2035 plan impossible, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) approved the 2035 plan in August 2022, making national and international news.
As a result, electric car sales also shot up dramatically. In 2021, roughly 12% of all new car sales were electric. Last year, the percentage approached 18%. And in the first quarter of this year, figures were over 20%. Even more, the state has been meeting electric vehicle goals much sooner than expected. In 2012, then-Governor Jerry Brown had set a 1.5 million total electric car sales figure to meet by 2025. In April, California managed to meet that figure two years ahead of schedule.
These figures led the announcement on Wednesday, when the CEC declared that California’s total percentage of electric/hybrid vehicles sold during the second quarter of 2023 now stood at 25.4% . With sales being at roughly 17% last year, California is currently on pace to reach the 35% mark before the 2026 target date. According to the CEC, California also has a large presence in the electric market nationwide, with 34% of new electric vehicles sold in the U.S. being sold in the Golden State.
“California is showing the world what’s possible – fostering innovation and creating space for an industry to flourish,” said Governor Newsom in a statement on Wednesday. “The proof is in the numbers: 1 in 4 new cars sold in our state are zero-emission – and thanks to our unparalleled incentives that make it cheaper than ever, we’re not leaving anyone behind.”
25% of all vehicles sold in California now electric
However, despite the important milestone, experts warned that the rise of electric cars, while good in combatting carbon emissions and climate change, could put a huge strain on the state’s electric grid in the coming years while California continues to switch over from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources.
“Energy consumption is a big drawback to electric vehicles,” explained Veronica Deer, an auto industry analyst who focuses on the electric market, to the Globe on Thursday. “The state has said that they can handle it, but many remain doubtful. There were huge grid problems last year, and California has clearly contradicted themselves, as they have asked electric car owners to not charge their cars during days when the grid was stressed. Asking electric car owners not to charge their cars because you can’t provide enough electricity is a warning sign that they can’t handle it right now.
“Also, remember that this isn’t really an environmental thing for most people right now. In ten years, it will be because it is mandatory to buy electric in California. But right now, it is mostly due to gas prices. And at that, a huge part of the demand has been for hybrid cars, with a huge shortage both in California and nationwide. People still don’t fully trust electric cars, and finding enough places to charge them, and quickly charge them at that, is still frustrating for most people.
“The 25% mark is encouraging, but before this is a true celebration, California needs to ensure that enough power is there, and technology needs to keep up so that the consumer only has to wait for a full charge in their car for about the same time as it takes to fill a tank of gas now and have it be charged at a charging station that are plentiful as gas stations are now. That’s where we need to be to truly make this work. And we obviously still have a long way to go.”
Q3 2023 electric car sales figures are due to be released by the CEC later this year.
View Comments (24)
Gee - just like most of the California "virtue-signal" mandates - put the cart before the horse and cripple the economy and/or the grid, and all the unaware consumers line up like devoted sheep to be shorn in their fancy Tesla's...
Just wait until critical mass is reached and they start issuing their "flex alerts" (notice the stupid orange/blue television commercials?) and then they start decommissioning the grid and people can't get to work....
Coming in 3...2...1....
Four out of the five folks at leading the California Public Utilities Commission are lawyers: https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/about-cpuc/commissioners
Genevieve Shiroma has a degree in materials engineering, which is more of an advanced applied chemistry degree.
No doubt the unelected and ethically challenged Democrat bureaucrats on the CPUC are all receiving financial incentives to push the bogus climate agenda of the WEF globalists and the CCP?
What the CEC is not admitting is that electric vehicles are a stilted industry, as all stakeholders are receiving subsidies: tax credits to purchasers, tax credits to manufacturers, community college training programs for technicians, and charging stations built by state agencies. All of this under the watchful eye of the four non-engineer lawyers who control the California Public Utilities Commission. It makes you wonder why car dealerships seem to have a shortage of new traditional gas-powered cars.
Notice how the Democrats / Marxists / Fascists use the term "Zero-Emission", because electric vehicles either by their creation or by producing the electricity, end up producing just as much pollution as gas cars. Their goal has nothing to do with the environment and everything to do with controlling people! No wonder Democrats are so obsessed with controlling the news and information. Can't have the truth coming out and can't have any type of open debate that would embarrass them.
First and foremost the vehicles are not zero emission; rather, remote emission creation vehicles. Secondly, are the number real? If they are they speak to the ignorance of the car buying public as there "EV" purchase probably driven by the high gas prices Newsom helped to create. The unrelenting public’s pandering the tyrant’s ego is further emboldening not only Newsom but the entire cabal of conspirators well on their way to ensuring America's destruction.
California's failure to recall Newsom sealed America’s fate to the abyss; Newsom a stodge for the DC tyrants hell-bent to take everything from us.
i wonder what percentage of them will spontaneously start wildfires?
26? ptobablu 3,6
I would be curious to know how many of these electric cars are governmental agencies. There are a lot of mandates for these agencies to go electric, How does the public agency numbers sway the 25.4% figure?
And, to expand upon my opening observation...
Have you noticed how Tesla drivers are the new Porsche drivers? The power and acceleration they offer IS exhilarating, but goes to their adolescent urges and causes most of the a-hole driver moves that one sees to be committed by Tesla drivers...
The other personal experience I have with them is taking a trip from Stanford University to Southern California in a Tesla a few years back that normally would have taken about 7-8 hours took over 12, due to the fact that we had to stop for several extended charging sessions along our trip down the 101, and the overcrowded search for an open Supercharger station in Stanford itself at the start of the trip itself was enough of a joke/PITA that any desire I ever had for a Tesla evaporated that day...
Sure they're fun off the line and have all kinds of Buck Rogers techo-doodad features in the interior to match the eye-widening accekeration, but the hassle of re-charging that trip cooled whatever burgeoning ardor I may have been secretly developing for a Tesla...
Now I also realize what a central-control dream they represent...
HARD pass....
Our local supermarket just opened up a bunch of Tesla chargers. The spaces are always empty except for people parking their gas cars in the shade of the solar panels.
Ah yes, how to Lie With Statistics 101.
In the US cars account for about 20% of all light vehicle sales. In California its around 30%. So 25% of 30% is around 7%. So its 125K EV's in a total light vehicle sales of 1.6 million plus.
Most of those EV's car are charged overnight. When 90%/95%+ of California electricity comes from reliable power sources like natural gas, coal and nuclear. "Reenables" only generate meaningful amounts when EV demand is very low. There is no "Carbon saving" . What ever that utterly meaningless statement might mean. It sure has no basic in actual science. About as scientific as eugenics. The last time these sort of people tried to influence public policy.
By the way has there ever been a an independent financial audit of CARBs multi billion dollar distribution of "carbon credits" tax money. What little information is in the public domains indicates that massive corruption is involved. Fraud and theft on a massive scale. CARB unlike ever other state agency seems to have little or no financial transparency. Something that goes back to the 1970's when it was run as a personal fiefdom by Jerry Browns best buddy Tom Quinn.. And nothing seems to have changed since in how CARB is run and how little oversight is involved.
It is a flim-flam game.
If they are so popular, remove all state and federal subsidies and incentives and HOV lane passes and see how they compete.
And lastly as the car approaches 75,000 miles what will its resale value be with a $25,000 replacement battery liability attached to a used car. Good luck with that.