Article courtesy of TopMark Funding.
In a unanimous vote, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) approved a mandate detailing what percentage of medium-duty and heavy-duty vehicles sold in the state have to be zero emissions for the next decade and a half.
The Details
The Advanced Clean Truck rule, the first of its type, sets standards for truck and chassis sales, based on a percentage of all sales numbers, to be zero-emission. The standards are to start low and then rise:
- By 2024, 7% of Class 4-8 and 3% of Class 1-3.
- By 2030, 50% of Class 4-8 and 15% of Class 1-3.
- By 2035, 75% of all Class 8 trucks sold at a dealership must have zero emissions.
The vote came after a seven-hour board hearing, where over 150 different people from various parts of the trucking industry gave their perspectives. The likes of Tesla and Nikola Motor expressed their approval of the new standards (which is not surprising considering how the twin companies are poised to enter the market with their zero-emission vehicles soon), whereas OEMs such as Volvo said the market is unprepared to purchase zero-emission vehicles at the rate the mandate targets.
Conclusion
CARB hopes to work with other states to implement similar quota mandates in other states (including Oregon and Maine), so that truck dealerships cannot avoid the mandate simply by moving out of the state.
Only time will tell if the mandate is a success in bringing zero-emission vehicles to a higher rate of adoption amongst the trucking industry, and ultimately bring trucking emissions down for a healthier environment.
