California’s Evolving Zero Emission Vehicle Program: Pulling New Technology into the Market

California’s Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) program is one of the key state-level policies for reducing greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions from the transportation sector. Since its inception nearly 30 years ago, the original goal of the program was to reduce local air pollution caused by gasoline vehicles, but it evolved to also target reduction of GHG emissions. The ZEV program represents a unique policy approach to achieving these goals—to require sales of vehicles with new technologies that have zero emissions. The authors review the history and performance of the ZEV program and evaluate prospects for the new, more stringent phase of the effort. The authors document numerous and significant changes to the design and stringency of the program. The authors also estimate values of ZEV credits traded among manufacturers. Their review leads to suggestions for improving the economic efficiency of the program. In particular, their review suggests that the program should provide manufacturers with additional compliance flexibilities – such as a safety valve – to prevent the need to ratchet back stringency levels.

• Record URL:
  https://media.rff.org/documents/RFF_WP_Californias_Evolving_Zero_Emission_Vehicle_Program.pdf
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• Supplemental Notes:
  • © 2019 Resources for the Future.
• Corporate Authors:

  Resources for the Future

  Washington, DC  United States 
• Authors:
  • McConnell, Virginia
  • Leard, Benjamin
  • Kardos, Fred
• Publication Date: 2019-11

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Appendices; Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 51p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Credit; Economic efficiency; Evaluation and assessment; Greenhouse gases; History; Policy analysis; Regulations; Sales; Technological innovations; Zero emission vehicles
• Geographic Terms: California
• Subject Areas: Economics; Environment; Highways; Policy; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01742538
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: Working Paper 19-22
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jun 16 2020 4:24PM