The State of California Plans on Punishing Car Manufacturers that Don’t Comply with Electric Vehicle Production Quotas
Jose Nino
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According to a Daily Caller report, California has plans of fining auto manufacturers who don’t comply with quotas for electric car production.
This plan is part of the state’s broader campaign to prohibit the sale of gas-powered vehicles by 2035. The electric vehicle scheme consists of the state fining automakers up to $20,000 for every vehicle that falls below California’s electric vehicle (EV) production targets.
Per California Air Resources Board (CARB) Chairwoman Liane Randolph, California will fine automakers if they do not meet the state’s quotas for electric car manufacturing.
Zooming out, California’s anti-gas-powered car regulations are designed to incentivize the production of additional electric cars.
The state will also consider rolling out new amendments and changing sales targets if the car market doesn’t react to the regulatory changes in the way state leaders expect it to.
“We recognize that not everyone is going to be buying a very expensive, brand-new car,” Randolph said to the New York Times. “But we also know that prices will go down in the future.”
Per data from Kelley Blue Book, the average price of an electric car is $66,000.
Jack McEvoy noted that approximately 16% of cars sold in California are electric.
The end goal for California policymakers is to raise the number of electric vehicles on the road with the aim of reducing emissions and transitioning towards 100% clean energy production by 2045.
Per data that Reuters published back in February, less than 1% of the 250 million cars on the road in America were electric.
Due to how embedded car culture is in the US, the anti-car green lobby has had to pivot to electric cars as an alternative to gas-powered vehicles. While there is nothing inherently wrong about electric vehicles, it should be market forces, not government action, that makes them available to the public.
As of now, gas-powered cars continue to be the most reliable vehicles for America’s working class and are also within their economic reach. Most people can’t afford luxury cars.
However, that does not register for the ruling class who wants to socially re-engineer society no matter the cost. A free-market in the automotive sector is still the best way to provide affordable and reliable forms of transportation for Americans of all economic backgrounds.
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