California to ban the sale of new gasoline cars: ‘This is huge’

State has biggest vehicle market in the US

Gasoline cars are set to be formally banned in California, the first announcement of its kind in the United States.

Under plans brought into effect on Thursday, Californians will be unable to purchase new gas-powered cars from 2035 onwards, The New York Times reported.

The rule, issued by the California Air Resources Board, requires all new cars in the state to be free of fossil fuels by that year. The state government’s “clean air” agency will also ban gasoline trucks and SUVs the same year.

The move is being heralded as a major leap towards the country’s net-zero target.

“This is huge,” said Margo Oge, an electric vehicles expert who oversaw the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations’ Environmental Protection Agency’s transportation emissions programmes.

“California will now be the only government in the world that mandates zero-emission vehicles. It is unique.”

California Governor Gavin Newsom said in a statement on Wednesday that “CA continues to lead the way”, almost two years after he issued an executive order on the target.

“It’s ambitious, it’s pioneering, it’s what we must do if we’re going to leave this planet better for future generations,” the Democratic governor’s senior climate adviser, Lauren Sanchez, told Axios.

California has the largest vehicle market in the US, and has forged a path with ambitious legislation to tackle the climate crisis.

The ban on gas-powered vehicles will put more pressure on car manufacturers to increase their output of electric vehicles, which currently make up around 15 per cent of all new vehicles sold in California, according to the California New Car Dealer’s Association.

Under the new plan, that figure must jump to 33 per cent, or a third of all sales, by 2026.

After 2035, some hybrid vehicles will still be permitted and people will still be able to drive or purchase used gasoline cars.

Only 6 per cent of cars sold in the US are electric with the country trailing the market shares of some European countries and China.

Last year, President Joe Biden signed an executive order which aims to have half of all new vehicles sold in the US by 2030 be zero-emissions.

The recently-passed Inflation Reduction Act will also provide tax credits to support electric vehicles purchases.

The legislation, which also has a host of clean energy incentives, is expected to cut the US’s domestic carbon footprint by 40 per cent by 2030, according to a number of independent analyses.