One in every five new cars sold in this US state in 2022 was emission free

One in five new cars sold in California in 2022 was a zero-emission vehicle, the state said based on some data collected. The largest car market in the United States has been charging towards its goal of electrifying its fleet. Last year, the state's officials set ambitious targets for boosting the number of electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs) on the roads, as they look to support climate goals by reducing greenhouse gases produced by combustion engines.

The California Air Resources Board announced in August the sale of new gasoline and diesel-powered cars would be eliminated by 2035, setting an aggressive timeline to phase them out. Last week, the California Energy Commission said 18.8 percent of new cars sold in the state in 2022 were EVs, PHEVs or fuel cell electric vehicles, all of which California includes in its zero-emission category. This is a huge progress as ten years ago, that figure was two percent.

Upon this achievement, the state's Governor Gavin Newsom said, "California continues to lead the zero-emission vehicle revolution with groundbreaking policies and investments that drive innovation, create good jobs and expand (zero-emission vehicle) access and affordability across the state." He added that the state is focusing on the communities that are most impacted by the intensifying climate crisis, and thus is trying to push ahead with making the dream of clean transportation come true.

The market for EVs is continued to be dominated by Tesla, with around two-thirds of the 346,000 zero-emission vehicles sold in the year. California already accounts for the lion's share of electric vehicles in the US, with 1.4 million of them on the state's roads, and around 40 percent of all ZEV sales in the US are in the state.