California set to exceed goal of 1.5 million electric vehicles on the road by 2025   As the barriers to widespread electric car adoption continue to fall, a new report suggests California, a leader in EV adoption, is likely to succeed with its goal to have 1.5 million electric vehicles on the road by 2025.
Next 10, a San Francisco-based think tank, explored the state?s attempts to expand its EV fleet in The Road Ahead for Zero-Emission Vehicles in California: Market Trends & Policy Analysis. The study looks at electric vehicles as they hit an inflection point: Battery costs have fallen, ranges continue to grow, many cities and even countries have passed or proposed laws to ban internal combustion engines in the future, and many leading carmakers such as Ford and GM have announced sizable investments in electric vehicles. California has led the way in the United States, according to report authors F. Noel Perry and Adam Fowler. As of October 2017, the state has 337,482 zero-emission vehicles (ZEV). While that only makes up 4.5 percent of the state?s total vehicle fleet, that number grew 53 percent between 2013 and 2017. It?s far outpacing the total electric vehicle percentage in the United States as a whole, 1.1 percent, and China, 1.8 percent, cementing California?s status as a world leader. It?s also giving the state more of a fighting chance to make its emissions reduction targets, since transportation accounts for roughly 40 percent of the state?s c...