Achieving Zero-Emission Mobility: The Role of Innovative Electric Vehicle Companies

On April 28, 2016, UCCONNECT hosted a symposium in Berkeley, CA on Achieving Zero-Emission Mobility: The Role of Innovative Electric Vehicle Companies. The symposium provided a platform for innovative and trendsetting electric vehicle (EV) companies to explain their latest business models and show how they can add value and contribute to the national dialogue on the transformation needed to achieve zero-emission transportation. Focus was also placed on identifying strategies that could potentially broaden the clean-transportation conversion by increasing “zero-emission vehicle” (ZEV) access to all income groups. In recent years, the U.S. Departments of Transportation (DOT) and Energy (DOE), as well as various state agencies, have been prioritizing the development and adoption of ZEVs. This has largely been framed in the broader, national and international effort to bring Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions under control, as pledged by President Obama at the 2015 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and resulted in “the Paris Agreement.”. This agreement has not yet been brought into full force but has been ratified by 19 countries with 178 total nations as signatories, and is designed to limit future climate change to an average global temperature rise of 1.5-2.0 °C.1 As of 2014, the transportation sector of the US economy contributed roughly over one-fourth of the total GHG emissions (https://www3.epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/sources.html), closely following the electricity production sector. The reason behind this is the extensive use of fossil fuel by the automotive fleet. Thus, as energy production increases the use of alternative and renewable sources, so must the transportation sector transition to adopt cleaner more sustainable vehicles that rely less on conventional fuels. In this vein, the DOT and DOE have collaborated on several programs and initiatives including the EV Everywhere Program, announced by President Obama in 2012. The program’s goal is to increase the adoption of plug-in electric vehicles across the U.S, and to do so through research and development, outreach and education, and partnership building. However, efforts to promote the adoption of EVs do not stop at the federal level. As of 2015, more than 37 states and the District of Columbia have adopted incentives that are aligned with the goal of increasing EV market uptake.2 These mechanisms include providing high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes access exemptions, financial incentives such as tax credits or registration fee reductions, parking payment exemptions, etc. These incentives, moreover, apply to diverse vehicle types, from small two-wheel EVs to heavy duty electric trucks. In California, as noted in the 2015 California Zero Emission Vehicle Action Plan, Governor Jerry Brown signed the “Charge Ahead California Initiative” in 2014 with the rationale that “all communities in California should have access to ZEVs and lowemission transportation and the many benefits of these technologies should be shared statewide.” The initiative directs the California Air Resources Board to develop a forward looking funding plan to meet the goal of 1 million ZEVs on California roads by 2020, while ensuring disadvantaged, low-income, and moderate-income communities benefit from this transition. The symposium sought to build on these initiatives and stated visions by laying out where and how significant advances can be made to meet our common goals of economic efficiency and sustainability for the transportation sector.