Motorists fill up with gas at a Shell station on July 22 in Denver. Eliminating the sale of gas-powered cars used to seem ridiculous. Now it is inching closer to reality.
David Zalubowski / AP
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David Zalubowski / AP
Motorists fill up with gas at a Shell station on July 22 in Denver. Eliminating the sale of gas-powered cars used to seem ridiculous. Now it is inching closer to reality.
David Zalubowski / AP
A few years ago, when the advocacy group Coltura called for the US to stop using gasoline, it provoked ridicule.
Coltura has waged the war on petroleum for several years up to this point, but its main weapons are things like music and performance art. A production featuring actors inside a transparent plastic bubble panics as it fills with simulated emissions.
Then, in 2017, Coltura’s co-CEO, Matthew Metz, published an advisory calling for Washington state to phase out gas-powered cars entirely. A journalist of the Seattle column wrote an article about Metz, featuring the word “crazy”.
A lot has changed in four years. Tesla is currently the most valuable car manufacturer in the world. Many automakers say they will stop making gas- and diesel-powered cars within the next two decades.
And what was once a fringe idea is now part of Global trend: momentum is building for the idea that zero-emissions vehicles, primarily electric vehicles, are the future of the auto industry.
Sandra Wappelhorst, who has Follow this trend for the International Council on Clean Transport, told NPR earlier this year.
She also only goes to individual cities like like London or Oslo, which not only focus on selling new cars, but also propose bans on all of combustion cars in the city center in the coming years.
The plan to sell 100% electric cars becomes mainstream
The recent climate talks in Glasgow have introduced a non-binding call for all vehicles sold worldwide to be zero-emissions by 2040. The European Union is looking into it. The zero-emissions regulation would go into effect five years earlier, in 2035.
The idea is spreading from heads of government to individuals. A recent poll authorized by Coltura, conducted by highly regarded national polling groups, found that more than 50% of American voters support requiring all new cars to be electric within a decade.
“Like, 10 years from now, you probably won’t have a car anymore. Right?” Elle King asked, as she looked at an electric vehicle on display at a shopping center in Northern Virginia this week. “And the good thing, because gas is very expensive.”
In the United States, the federal government has not approved of a complete phase-out, calling instead for 50% of new cars sold to be electric. But California, Massachusetts and New York have all planned to end the sale of gas-powered cars within 15 years.
And the state’s proposals to change our auto lives haven’t sparked widespread political backlash – despite America’s obsession with cars and the country’s overwhelming reliance on gasoline. oil.
Trina Saha, who lives in Queens, said: “I think more people in New York are crazy about the limits of soda than they think.
She just got a new, traditional, gas-powered Toyota Corolla. But she says a car’s features are more important than what it’s powered by, and she fully hopes that she’ll eventually buy an electric car.
An electric vehicle charging station is seen at a BP gas station in Bridge, NJ on May 6. The lack of extensive infrastructure for electric vehicles is seen as a major obstacle to the sale of these vehicles.
Kena Betancur / AFP via Getty Images
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Kena Betancur / AFP via Getty Images
An electric vehicle charging station is seen at a BP gas station in Bridge, NJ on May 6. The lack of extensive infrastructure for electric vehicles is seen as a major obstacle to the sale of these vehicles.
Kena Betancur / AFP via Getty Images
Big challenges remain before the goal is achieved
Last could be the keyword here. Getting rid of car gars by 2035 – the date the EU and many countries are considering – may feel far-fetched, which could help explain why people aren’t ready about the policies.
That can be a problem, said Jasmine Sanders, chief executive officer of OurClimate. In fact, ending gas vehicle sales by 2035 will require a massive amount of change over the next 15 years – from infrastructure investment to a shift in consumer mindsets and behavior. use.
“We have to go ahead and start doing this now,” Sanders said. “We can’t wait until 2034 and beyond [start] tell people, ‘No, you can’t buy that gas truck.’ ”
And the scale of the proposed transformation is enormous. Currently, gas- and diesel-powered vehicles account for 97 percent of the U.S. auto market. Electric vehicles still cost more upfront, and the US doesn’t have the grid or charging infrastructure to support a fleet of all-electric vehicles.
These are hot topics in boardrooms as well as state homes.
Automakers are increasingly accepting the idea that electric vehicles are the future, but they are also acutely aware of the scale of change involved and there is no consensus on when it will actually happen. how fast.
Environmentalists are pushing to phase out gasoline-powered cars as early as 2030, while some carmakers are skeptical that even 2040 is too ambitious.
In short, America has not yet parted with gasoline. Some Democratic-controlled countries set targets with no guarantee that they will.
But what is clear is that in just a few years, the idea of no more gasoline-powered cars has moved from the fringes to the center of attention.
Today, Coltura doesn’t just write op-eds about running out of gas. It helps write the law To make that happen, let’s state each state.
In 2018, advocacy group Coltura released “Gasoline, Gasoline,” a music video calling for the US to give up gasoline.
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Coltura’s move from the suburbs to the halls of power also manifests itself in unexpected ways. A woman named Jennifer Granholm appeared in one of the anti-gasoline music videos Coltura released a few years ago.
At the time, she was the former governor of Michigan and a well-known electric car enthusiast. Today, she is the United States Secretary of Energy.
