California Will Ban Sale of Most New Gasoline Vehicles by 2035

• California will be the first state in the U.S. to ban sales of most new gasoline cars.
• Plan will require most new light-duty cars, SUVs and trucks to be zero emissions by 2035.

According to a report by the New York Times, California is expected to announce tomorrow a plan to ban all sales of gasoline cars in the state by 2035. The plan — named Advanced Clean Cars II — will introduce a tiered system that requires a certain percentage of all new light-duty cars, trucks and SUVs sold in the state to be zero emission vehicles, or ZEVs. Vehicles that are fully battery electric (such as the Ford Mustang Mach-E or Tesla Model 3) or have hydrogen fuel cell powertrains (like the Toyota Mirai and Hyundai Nexo are considered ZEVs.

Beginning in model year 2026, 35% of all new vehicles sold in California must be ZEVs — a figure that increases to 68% in model year 2030 and 100% in 2035. The NYT article notes that roughly 12% of all new vehicles sold in California today are ZEVs.

This news comes several years after California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order introducing a phasing out of new gasoline vehicles and months after a proposal was submitted to the California Air Resources Board to do the same.

The Advanced Clean Cars II proposal also amends California's existing low-emission vehicle regulations "to include increasingly stringent standards for gasoline cars and heavier passenger trucks to continue to reduce smog-forming emissions while the sector transitions toward 100% electrification [...]"

While California is the first state to put a plan to move fully to all-electric new vehicles into place, a number of others are expected to quickly follow suit. Currently, 13 states and Washington, D.C., follow CARB's general low-emissions outlines, and nine of those states have also adopted the current, more stringent ZEV targets. Those nine — Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island and Vermont — will likely adopt the ACC II proposal in the near future.

Edmunds says

California becomes the first state in the U.S. to formalize an electrification strategy for all new vehicles. Beginning in 2035, every new light-duty car, truck and SUV sold in the state will be a zero emissions vehicle, meaning it's powered solely by electricity or uses a hydrogen fuel cell.