California Electric Vehicle Law

An interesting scene takes place every day at the electric vehicle charging station in the NE corner of the Vons parking lot in La Crescenta: at least two or three cars – if not more – can be seen waiting in line to use the three chargers, which are almost always constantly in use. This means that anyone arriving to charge their vehicle will probably have to spend at least two hours.

This is significant, not because of the inconvenience experienced by a few EV owners, but because it’s a sign that California isn’t prepared for the phase-in of the Electrical Vehicle Law which will require that 35% of new vehicle sales be EVs by 2026, and 100% by 2035.

When our state legislature passed this law in 2022 it didn’t have a clear idea of the scope of the charging infrastructure needed for the increasing number of EVs that will be on our roads as a result and it had no clue at all about how to achieve it.

And it still doesn’t. At a the most recent hearing of the state assembly Select Committee on Electric Vehicles and Charging Infrastructure, although there was a great deal of concern and worry about the state being ready for the 2035 deadline, all of the members and witnesses completely ignored the fact that a very large percentage of car owners in our state are not home owners who have the option of installing a charger at their homes, which enables them to charge conveniently overnight. At present, anyone living in an apartment (with very few exceptions) would find it totally impractical to own an EV considering the long waiting times at public charging stations.  

Other states have incentives to install EV chargers in multi-family housing but in California this isn’t even on the radar. I hope that our legislature wakes up soon because there is going to be massive pushback to the EV law as gasoline vehicles become harder and more expensive to obtain.

Allan Cate
La Crescenta