California Gas Cars and The Last Chase

 

The last chase was a science fiction film from 1981 that is going to start to bear more in common with reality by 2035 than us gas powered dinosaurs will want to admit. 

The film stars Lee Majors, Burgess Meredith and Chris Makepeace in a futuristic scenario about a former racing driver who reassembles his old Porsche and drives to California in a world where cars and motor vehicles of all kinds have been outlawed by the powers that be.

The actual "ban" on new vehicles that aren't zero emissions doesn't go into effect until 2035. California did try something similar in the late 90's early 2000 range, but the technology just wasn't there to do it.

Sales of new ZEVs and PHEVs will start with 35% that year, build to 68% in 2030, and reach 100% in 2035.

LA Times - record on big climate promises mixed

And it’s not only personal vehicles that will need the stations, but also the heavy-duty trucks that transport goods throughout the state every day. The twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have the goal of being serviced exclusively by zero-emission trucks by 2035, but they have a long way to go: Only 35 of the 22,000 trucks that serve the port complex are “electric,” “battery electric” or “hydrogen fuel cell,” according to data from their clean truck program.

There are many pieces to this puzzle. Its easy to make the mandates, harder to make it all work. My biggest concern is the grid. Getting solar/batteries in place to meet demand. The actual grid, and money to build that just won't exist. So everything will need to be more decentralized. 

“If you’re talking about California trying to move its emissions from gasoline cars into EVs, you’re talking about probably doubling the amount of electricity demand on the grid,” said Meng, of UC Santa Barbara. “Where’s that going to come from? You could imagine large utility-scale solar in places like Kern County, but with the laws as they’re written now, it’s very hard for Kern County to get property tax benefits from a solar farm than it could from oil drilling.”

 With statements like this, they are coming to take your gas powered cars away. Not today, not tomorrow, but they are

Stringent Standards for Conventional Cars

As with the original Advanced Clean Cars rules, ACC II includes updated regulations for light- and medium-duty internal combustion engine vehicles as well, to mitigate the air quality impacts from conventional vehicles. These low-emission vehicle standards help deliver real-world emission benefits that complement more significant emission reductions gained by wider ZEV deployment. This will prevent potential emission backsliding by removing ZEVs from the emissions baseline used to calculate new vehicle fleet-average emissions. The regulation also reduces the allowable exhaust emissions under more real-world driving conditions and emissions caused by evaporation.