Colorado Wants More EVs on the Road, Without a Gas Car Ban

Colorado desires to part out gas-powered automobiles by 2050, but not like trendsetting California, which introduced that no new gas-powered automotive be offered there by 2035, Colorado desires extra EVs on the street with out a comparable ban.

The Colorado Energy Office revealed a draft of the 2023 EV Plan final week, an replace to the present 2020 EV Plan. It outlines how the state goals for 940,000 electrical passenger automobiles on the street by 2030 and “nearly 100% zero emission light-duty vehicles on the road by 2050.” This new technique emphasizes electrifying completely different medium- and heavy-duty automobiles and eradicating monetary challenges to EV possession.

Will Toor, the chief director of the Colorado Energy Office, mentioned that the 2023 draft is constructing on the momentum from EV adoption in the previous few years. “The [Colorado] market has grown so much since our last plan. When we adopted the 2020 plan, our EV market share was around 3%. It’s now around 10%,” Toor advised Earther.

According to Toor, the 2020 EV plan targeted on smaller passenger automobiles. The 2023 draft will, too, however it additionally set a purpose of getting 100% of the medium- and heavy-duty automobiles offered by 2050 be zero-emissions automobiles. Those automobiles are the second-largest supply of greenhouse gasoline emissions within the transportation sector, based on the Colorado Department of Transportation. Larger automobiles contribute 22% of street greenhouse gasoline emissions whereas solely making up 10% of the state’s automobiles, the DoT wrote on its web site.

Supporting the electrification of a variety of automobiles means the state will want extra charging stations. There are at the moment greater than 720 DCFC fast-charging stations and greater than 3,700 slower EV charging stations in Colorado, based on an online database. The 2023 draft of the EV plan outlined that the Energy Office goals to have 1,700 fast-charging stations and 5,800 level 2 charging stations all through Colorado by 2025.

The draft of the brand new plan gives one other various to gas-powered automobiles: electrical bicycles. State officers wish to assist lower-income residents afford e-bikes by contemplating a statewide e-bike tax credit score. Toor defined that together with e-bikes into the 2023 EV draft was partially impressed by the passion for a smaller bike program. The metropolis of Denver launched an e-bike rebate program in April to assist extra folks purchase e-bicycles. By October, greater than 4,100 Denver residents redeemed vouchers for e-bikes price greater than $4 million by way of that program, The Denverite reported. “A significant difference from the earlier versions of the plan is a much larger focus on equity,” Toor mentioned in regards to the new addition. “[We are] ensuring that all the programs that we are developing really provide benefits to low-income and disproportionately impacted communities, and to rural Colorado.”

The 2023 plan draft proposes increasing present tax credit to make EVs much more accessible for Coloradans. Some of the EV fashions in the marketplace don’t meet the necessities for the present federal EV credit, by which consumers can obtain as much as $7,500 in a federal tax credit. Under these necessities, remaining assembly of the cars must occur in North America. This will take some automotive firms a number of years to regulate to, Toor mentioned. The new plan beneficial an “extension of the light-duty ZEV tax credit through at least 2027,” till producers might catch as much as federal necessities.

Colorado residents can submit comments in regards to the draft plan till the final day of 2022. After that, Energy Office will contemplate new updates relying on the enter obtained from the general public. “There’s not a firm deadline, but we anticipate that by the end of January or early February, we will release the final version,” Toor mentioned.