“This is arguably the biggest change in personal transportation in most of our lifetimes,” Brian Maas, president of the California New Car Dealers Association, told Newsweek.
Newsom pledged $10 billion in funding over six years to make electric vehicles (EVs) cheaper and easier to buy, and more funding has since been provided by Congress’ passing of the Inflation Reduction Act. But industry experts have warned the governor’s plan “will ultimately fail” if California does not provide the infrastructure EVs require.
Newsom faces some key hurdles, including some that do not appear to have easy answers. And while stakeholders tend to agree on the major roadblocks, opinions differ on which is the largest to face California’s push for greener transportation.
“Last year, when we saw the national average [gas price] increase to $5 per gallon, we saw increased consumer interest in purchasing an electric vehicle,” Devin Gladden, federal affairs manager at the American Automobile Association (AAA), told Newsweek. “At that same time, consumers made it very clear that the rise in cost of electric vehicles was the main concern for greater consumer adoption. Moving into this year, as the price of electric vehicles remains high, it becomes a real challenge for consumers, particularly when you’re looking at greater widespread adoption.”
“The hard reality that many policymakers are going to have to grapple with is how to get more consumers behind the wheel of these expensive vehicles. That will be the number one hurdle,” he added.
Maas estimated that the average price for a new EV is currently around $66,000, adding: “That is not affordable for most Californians.” He said: “We’re not going to make it to the transition of 100 percent zero emission by 2035 if we can’t figure out how to make these vehicles more affordable.”
Asked if Newsom’s policy might perpetuate a wealth disparity between car owners, Gladden said: “It definitely does create a widening conversation around affordability of EVs and when you start to look at implementation of climate solutions, cost is a key consideration—particularly given this high cost, high inflationary period that global consumers are dealing with.”
“It really does put the spotlight on who has to foot the bill for climate change,” he added.
When asked to comment, Erin Curtis, a spokesperson for the California Environmental Protection Agency, responded: “The Newsom administration has done more to make zero-emission vehicles more affordable for Californians than any other administration. With billions of dollars invested in ZEVs in recent years, Californians can get up to $9,500 to purchase electric cars—that’s on top of federal incentives that are undergoing significant increases under the Biden-Harris administration.”
“Automakers are also taking seriously the challenge of cost seriously,” she said.
While Marc Geller, spokesperson for the Electric Vehicle Association, based in California, recognized the cost of EVs was an issue, he noted that production of EVs had been “rather limited”—particularly recently with supply chain issues—which was restricting accessibility.
But the major hurdle for EV uptake in California in his view is not cost.
“There has been put in California and in the federal government an emphasis on public charging infrastructure, on fast charging,” Geller said. “But, in fact, with electric cars, what is most important is that cars have access, where they dwell for a long period of time, and the most important place is obviously at home.”
While those in single-family homes were able to cheaply and easily charge their EV in their driveway or garage, people in multi-family dwellings—such as apartment blocks or condos—do not have as easy charging capabilities.
“Personally, I’ve been working on the California Building Codes in order to mandate that new constructions have access points for every new unit constructed, and that’s been a bit of a battle even in California, where they have had a very incremental approach to providing access points for people who live in multi-family housing,” Geller said. “And certainly existing multi-family housing is a much more significant and much more potentially expensive nut to crack.”
“More money will be required but there will also have to be a focus on meeting consumers where they are,” Gladden concurred. Maas, however, believed providing widespread public charging would minimize this concern.
“Governor Newsom has supported equitable access to clean vehicles through programs such as Clean Cars for All and Equitable At Home Charging,” Curtis said. “California’s accelerated investments in multi-family housing charging infrastructure will ensure that those living in apartments and other multiple-family residences will have equal access to charging.”
According to a 2022 AAA survey, one issue that is on 58 percent of EV-sceptic Americans’ minds is range anxiety: running out of charge. This ranks a close third after joint top concerns of price and public charging.
“Gavin Newsom’s electric car plan will ultimately fail if this problem isn’t solved urgently. In particular, range anxiety and grid stress will present big barriers,” Rami Reshef, an Israeli entrepreneur and CEO of hydrogen fuel cell company GenCell, told Newsweek. “This commitment has been made without the adequate infrastructure for EVs in place; this transition will falter if this doesn’t change.”
Reshef believes he has the solution, especially for remote areas where power can be unreliable; his charging stations run on hydrogen and ammonia, making them emission-free and off the grid. “Ultimately, the grid is complex and time-consuming to update,” he said. “That’s time the planet doesn’t have. We need solutions that can be deployed in months, not years.”
“I think that the notion that we need massive, massive numbers of public charging access points is overstated. What we need is access,” Geller said, noting the federal funds that will provide for public charging infrastructure. “They’ve got a car that goes 200 or 250 miles before they need to charge, and they are home long before they have driven 250 miles 99 percent of the time.”
That said, Maas noted the 10,000 gas stations in California that motorists could fill up at in minutes, and estimated a full tank would last 400-500 miles.
The difference in the types of settlements in California is vast, ranging from built-up areas like downtown Los Angeles to barren deserts. While Geller sees EVs as less of an issue for rural residents, who have the capacity to charge at home, than multi-family dwellings, others do.
“This will be a critical area for state EV policymakers because it will have to balance the needs of both urban and rural charging communities,” Gladden commented. “We’re anticipating that states are going to help those efforts, particularly as you look at the federal government and the massive influx of federal government grants and taxpayer dollars that are flowing in; states are going to be increasingly called on to help balance out what are the long-term and short-term needs.”
Geller believes California’s power grid will be able to handle a rise in EVs. “The challenges for rural people are often have been more kind of cultural than practical, in my understanding,” he told Newsweek.
“In other words, at least in the United States, we’ve had this divide that says: liberals and city dwellers get electric cars and rural people, kind of ‘real Americans’—don’t they love their gas cars,” Geller added. “But needless to say, that’s changing over time. No one likes to pay more for gas than their neighbors are paying for electricity.”
“California has taken a comprehensive, all-of-government approach to transportation, which includes incentives that consider a purchaser’s needs and resources, to public charging infrastructure with billions of dollars invested, to building codes that require all new construction to include wiring for EV charging at single-family and multi-family dwellings,” Curtis said.
Update 01/13/23, 2:50 a.m. ET: This article was updated to include comment from Erin Curtis, deputy secretary for External Affairs and Communications at CalEPA.
