California Electric Vehicle Mandate
* Kenneth Green’s recommendation to “Pull the Plug on the Electric Car Mandate” (Commentary, May 23) overlooks the vast economic opportunity presented by California’s emerging global leadership in alternative fuels and low-, ultra-low and zero-emission vehicle technologies.
The California Air Resources Board mandate is designed to force the development of any technology which will significantly reduce air pollution. Whether or not one agrees with mandates, this particular one is operating as intended; it has driven rapid progress in batteries, high-power semiconductor electronics, flywheel storage systems, fuel cells and automotive materials--both in California and worldwide. Tough goals with incentives at the end do effectively drive technological progress, innovation and competition, and the auto industry, albeit reluctantly, has met such technological challenges before.
At the current time, the only technology which can qualify for zero-emission credit required under CARB regulations is the battery-powered electric vehicle, but it is not necessary for the auto makers to invest upward of a billion dollars in tooling up entirely new plants to comply with the 1998 mandate. Current vehicle designs can be modified and adapted for electric drives, as many foreign auto makers and start-up companies are doing for the first-generation products. Indeed, CARB has demonstrated flexibility in proposing to allow partial credit to low-emission, hybrid vehicles that are anticipated to ease the market toward the more stringent standard.
In addition to encouraging the development of new technologies, the mandate has also stimulated enormous entrepreneurial activity and private investment in California, which will have a significant impact on our economy and jobs in the years ahead. Well over 130 firms, both large and small, are engaged in EV technology and are making large investments based on the mandate. Out of a total potential of some 400,000 new jobs in California that will be created in advanced transportation by the year 2010, Project California anticipates that as many as 70,000 of these can be in EV-related industrial clusters, as a result of building on the large anchor market in our state. Worldwide, we project a market of $25 billion for electrically propelled vehicles alone.
European and Japanese auto makers’ response to this technological challenge has been strong, leaving little doubt that affordable, zero-emission vehicles will be produced and sold by someone in the very near future. California is well positioned to play a winning role in this arena.
MALCOLM CURRIE
Co-Chair, Project California
Chairman Emeritus, Hughes Aircraft
Newport Beach
