Another Blow To Environmentalists
After a long drawn day long deliberation on March 27th, the California Air Resources Board have unanimously decided to cut the number of zero emission vehicles (ZEVs) required to be on sale by a whopping 70% for the years 2012 through to 2014. That is a little better than the original amount that they wanted to cut the vehicles by- 90%!
This move came after the Board claimed that the 18 year old ZEV mandate had become too complex and they wanted to make it simpler and more aggressive. They however believe that the best way to achieve this is by ironically reducing the mandatory number of ZEVs that car makers have to churn out.
In this confusing turn of events, the bottom line is that automakers have to build 7,500 electric and hydrogen fuel cell cars between 2012 and 2014 and also 60,000 plug-in hybrids in the same time span. This new mandate seems to promote Plug-In Hybrids, compressed natural gas vehicles and other such biofuel operated cars over battery and hydrogen fuel operated zero emission cars. They believe that the infrastructure for zero fuel cars is still not in place.
The proposal put before the Board sought to slash down the mandatory number of zero emission vehicles required to be constructed by automakers from 75,000 to a miserable 27,500. Environmentalists believe that such a move will abolish any incentive that carmakers may have, to build non polluting cars and improve technologies associated with such cars.
To make matters worse, no one seems to be able decipher the actual implication that this revised mandate makes. The mandate’s complex system of credits states that automakers can build 7,500 fuel cell vehicles with a range greater than 200 miles. Or they can opt for the construction of 5,375 fuel cell vehicles with a range greater than 300 miles. Or choose to build 12,100 battery electric vehicles with a range greater than 100 miles, or any permutation thereof as long as the total number of units adds up to 7,500. What the plans are for the manufacture of ZEVs after 2014, will remain unclear until an overhaul of the mandate has been completed.
No one seemed pleased with the new scheme of things. Electric Vehicle enthusiasts thought that hydrogen was unnecessarily given too much importance, hydrogen favourers thought that infrastructure needs were not adequately addressed. Environmentalists were of the belief that global warming issues will not be tackled effectively by this cutting down of vehicles and car makers thought that technology was not equipped enough for even the figures as they stand now. In this tug-o-war, the Board has decided to stick to its guns and claim that they have reached a healthy balance between how far ZEV technology can be pushed realistically and the more reasonable plug-in hybrids.
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