Establishing either a national or state-level carbon tax is no small undertaking. It requires careful consideration of various factors including what impact it will have on the economy, will it be fair and equitable, and will it be able to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. A carefully crafted carbon pricing policy can, however, be a useful tool to cut carbon emissions, including from the auto sector. ADOPT ZERO-EMISSION VEHICLE MANDATE. The zero-emission vehicle, or ZEV, mandate has been identified as a vital tool to support EV growth in the future, and there is evidence to suggest that such mandates are driving increasing deployment of EVs in several parts of the country. The ZEV mandate is a California state regulation that requires that between 2018 and 2025 automakers must accelerate their production of ZEVs, which includes BEVs, PHEVs, and FCEVs, to account for 15.4 percent of vehicles sold. Under the Clean Air Act, California has unique authority to issue vehicle emission standards that are stricter than federal vehicle standards and to establish a ZEV mandate. Other states can adopt the California standard. Currently, nine other states—Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Vermont—participate in the ZEV mandate. ENDNOTES 1 Steven Loveday, “December 2017 Plug-In Electric Vehicle Sales Report Card,” January 3, 2018. Available at: https://insideevs.com/december-2017-plugin-electric-vehicle-sales-report-card/ 2 Herman K. Trabish, “Team of Rivals: Utilities, Enviros Unite to Push Electric Vehicles,” Utility Dive, February 26, 2018. 3 Steven Loveday, “December 2017 Plug-In Electric Vehicle Sales Report Card,” January 3, 2018. Available at: https://insideevs.com/december-2017-plugin-electric-vehicle-sales-report-card/ 4 Jeffrey Rissman, “The Future of Electric Vehicles in the U.S.” San Francisco: Energy Innovation, 2017. 5 Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, “Advanced Technology Vehicle Sales Dashboard.” Available at: https://autoalliance.org/ energy-environment/advanced-technology-vehicle-sales-dashboard/ 6 Peter Slowik and Nic Lutsey (2017). Expanding the Electric Vehicle Market in U.S. Cities. Washington, DC: The International Council on Clean Transportation. 7 Steve Hanley, “California Wants 5 Million Zero Emissions Cars on its Roads by 2030,” Clean Technica, January 30, 2018. 8 Mark Chediak, “The Latest Bull Case for Electric Cars: The Cheapest Batteries Ever,” Bloomberg, December 5, 2017. 9 Bloomberg New Energy Finance (2018). Electric Vehicle Outlook: 2018. BNEF. Available at: https://about.bnef.com/electric-vehicle-outlook/#toc-download 10 Gas-powered cars require replacing parts that go bad over time. EVs have fewer components and items that do not need to be replaced include oil, fan belts, air filters, timing belts, head gaskets, cylinder heads, and spark plugs. Thus maintenance costs for EVs are less compared to conventional cars. Further-
Research into which policies can effectively increase EV market share in a state has found that joining the ZEV mandate is the most effective thing states can do.107 States with the ZEV mandate have significantly higher market shares of PEVs than states without the ZEV mandate, collectively reaching 3.65 percent of new vehicle sales in December 2017. Moreover, adoption of the ZEV mandate could influence regional PEV markets. While the average market share of PEVs in ZEV-mandate states was 1.06 percent, in states neighboring ZEV states the average market share was 0.62 percent. In all other states, the share was lower at 0.35 percent.108 CONCLUSION The public benefits of EVs are clear. They can help states reduce their transportation sector emissions and solve key environmental and public health challenges. And yet the United States EV market, comprising just 1 percent of new vehicle registration, is not large enough to see those benefits. State policies can help address the numerous barriers that currently inhibit EV deployment, including cost, range, lack of knowledge about EVs, and needed improvements to charging infrastructure. more, since an electric motor is able to slow itself down, the use of brake pedals is reduced and brake pads and rotors last longer. 11 Michael Sivak and Brandon Schoettle (2018). Relative Costs of Driving Electric and Gasoline Vehicles in the Individual U.S. States. The University of Michigan, Sustainable Worldwide Transportation. 12 Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, Public Law 110-343, 110th Cong., 2nd sess. (October 3, 2008). Available at: www.congress.gov/110/plaws/publ343/ PLAW-110publ343.pdf 13 Gil Tal and Michael Nicholas, “Exploring the Impact of the Federal Tax Credit on the Plug-In Vehicle Market,” Transportation Research Record, Journal of the Transportation Research Board 2572, 2016. 14 Fred Lambert, “There’s a New Effort to Remove the EV Tax Credit Cap Just as Tesla and GM are About to Hit it,” Electrek, March 16, 2018. 15 Paul Allen and others (2017). Utility Investment in Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure: Key Regulatory Considerations. M.J. Bradley & Associates and Georgetown Climate Center. 16 Paul Lienert, “Global Carmakers to Invest at Least $90 Billion in Electric Vehicles,” Reuters, January 15, 2018. 17 IEA (2018). Global EV Outlook 2018: Towards Cross-Modal Electrification. International Energy Agency. 18 Bloomberg New Energy Finance (2018). Electric Vehicle Outlook: 2018. BNEF. 19 Ibid. 20 IEA (2018). Global EV Outlook 2018: Towards Cross-Modal Electrification. International Energy Agency. 21 Ibid. 22 Patrick Hertzke and others, “The Global Electric-Vehicle