New York Formally Adopts California’s 2035 No New Gas Powered Car Ban

At a press conference in White Plains, New York on Thursday, New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced that the state would be following California and will be banning the sale of new gas powered cars beginning in 2035.

The California 2035 ban, first announced by Governor Gavin Newsom in 2020 and made official by the state just last month, is to be staggered over the next 13 years. According to the California Air Resources Board (CARB) plan, 35% of all new cars sold in California in 2026 are to to be electric or hybrids, with the amount climbing to 68% by 2030, and 100% by 2035.

In the New York plan revealed on Thursday, the Empire State is to largely follow California’s plan with the same staggered 35%/2026, 68%/2030, 100%/2035 route. However, New York’s plan also expands to public transportation, with school bus fleets needing to meet the new standards by 2027 and be completely zero emissions by 2035.

“All new vehicles sold in New York must be zero emissions by 2035,” tweeted Governor Hochul on Thursday. “By revving up our clean transportation transition and making major investments to make EVs more accessible, we’re supercharging our fight against climate change.”

“We’re really putting our foot down on the accelerator and revving up our efforts to make sure we have this transition, not someday in the future, but on a specific date, a specific year, by the year 2035,” added Hochul on Thursday after arriving to the conference in an electric car. “We actually have benchmarks to achieve, to show we’re on the path to get there. Changes will not occur suddenly.”

“We had to wait for California to take a step because there’s some federal requirements that California had to go first. That’s the only time we’re letting them go first. That’s all right. Once they made that decision, we are able to step up immediately and say now there’s nothing holding us back.”

In addition to the 2035 standards, Hochul also announced California-like electric vehicle rebate programs and a major expansion of electric vehicle chargers in preparation for more electric vehicles on the road.

Industry observers noted on Thursday that Congress can still block this from happening, something that is to be more likely next year with the GOP having a roughly 70% chance of retaking the House.

“Federally, the California and now New York electric vehicle measures can still be stopped,” noted Auto industry researcher Dane Collins to the Globe on Thursday. “California as first here, and other states are trying to downplay it, but you know the saying, ‘So goes California goes the nation’. The 2035 measure is just the latest. And with New York having some car heavy cities itself like California, it is going to make some people mad.

“So, yeah, New York became the second state to adopt this, but by them doing so it may fuel more people to go against it. 2023 will be very interesting, as this is going to play out a lot, as more states will likely adopt it and more lawmakers are going to try and stop it on a nationwide scale.”

While New York became the second state to formally adopt a 2035 date to end all new sales of gas powered cars, Massachusetts and Washington are likely to adopt it soon as well due to state trigger laws, with other blue East Coast, Western, and Midwestern states also likely looking to pass it soon.