State officials show off technology, signal support for mandate

Associated Press

SACRAMENTO (AP) -- August 17, 2000 -- Showing off the latest in electric vehicles, state officials sent strong signals Thursday that they won't seriously weaken rules that would put thousands of the clean-running cars on the market in 2003.

"We need these vehicles," said Alan Lloyd, chairman of the state Air Resources Board. "We need them to meet our air quality standards. We need them for our health."

The 11-member ARB will decide next month whether to keep, modify or throw out regulations that would require that at least 10 percent of the new cars and light trucks offered for sale in California by major producers emit little or no pollution, starting in 2003.

Zero-emission vehicles -- currently that means battery-powered electric vehicles -- would have to make up at least 4 percent of new autos, although manufacturers could reduce that number by offering them for sale before 2003 or making cars that get more than 100 miles between battery charges.

Manufacturers could also delay compliance for a year by producing two years' worth of the vehicles by the end of 2004. ARB staffers predict that the regulations will require production of about 22,000 electric vehicles for 2003. There are roughly 2,300 on the road now, not conting gasoline-powered cars that have been converted to run on batteries.

Auto companies contend they won't be able to sell or lease that many because of the higher cost and relatively short range of electric vehicles and have been urging the ARB to roll back the requirements.

"You are looking at hundreds of millions of dollars for a very, very small (air quality) benefit that could be achieved in a variety of ways," said Steven Douglas, director of environmental affairs for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers.

But Winston Hickox, head of the state's Environmental Protection Agency, said he "seriously doubted" that the ARB would make significant changes in the rules.

"We will rethink some elements of (the regulations)," he added.

Earlier this month an ARB staff report estimated electric vehicles would cost about $7,500 to $20,000 more to produce than gasoline-powered cars, not counting research and development expenses.

But the study predicted the cost gap would narrow as "as technology improves and manufacturers move to volume production."

The staff recommended state subsidies for at least a few years to lower the price of electric vehicles and make them more attractive to consumers.

Hickox and Lloyd were among the officials on hand as the state showed off about 100 electric vehicles at a Sacramento park to demonstrate improvements in the technology.

The state contends that most of the improvements have been triggered by the zero-emission vehicle mandate, which was originally adopted in 1990 and has been watered down twice since then.

The vehicles on display ranged from an electric scooter to battery-powered sedans, pickups and vans to a big-rig truck that can run on compressed natural gas or electricity.

David Modisette, executive director of the California Electric Transportation Coalition, which includes electric utilities, battery manufacturers and some local governments, said the event and the statements by Hickox and Lloyd would make it difficult for the ARB to make significant changes in the regulations.

"I don't think they will," he said.

Modisette's group released a study that concluded that adoption of the zero-emission vehicle regulations sharply increased technological improvements in electric vehicles.

The study found that the number of electric-vehicle-related patents, jumped from six in 1991 to more than 130 in 1998, nearly quadrupling the average growth of all patents.

Also Thursday, a nonprofit group, the Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technologies, said it planned to run some cable television ads in September stressing the negative environmental impacts of gasoline.

"The debate at the ARB needs to be much broader than just emissions from cars," said John White, the group's executive director. "It's about lessening the footprint of the petroleum fuel cycle and reducing our addiction."