In a bid to revive losses to the economy, and as a potential way to support electric vehicles, Gavin Newsom, the Governor of California, has proposed a fund of $3.2 billion for boosting the infrastructure and adoption of EV in the state.
Newsom said during a press conference that even as the Biden government works to promote EV at the Senate level, they are “not waiting around”, and are moving ahead with the proposed fund. The fund is a part of the $100 billion fund that his government has proposed for their “California Roars Back” package, which is aimed at getting getting state’s economy back on track.
The Division of the Budget
More than half of the fund that has been set aside for the promotion of EV will be used up in replacing the state’s conventional vehicles, including 1,000 transit buses, 1,150 trucks, and 1,000 school buses. Electric alternatives will take the place of these vehicles.
$800 million from the remaining fund will go towards the Clean Cars 4 All programme, wherein low-income drivers will be helped in upgrading to zero or near-zero cars. Clean vehicles will also be provided with rebates.
$500 million will be provided to improve the infrastructure for adopting EV. $250 million, on the other hand, would be used for giving out manufacturing grants. The grants are especially eyeing Hyundai, as per Newsom’s statement. This comes after the company announced a budget of a whopping $7.4 billion to manufacture EV in the United States.
In his statement, Newsom added, “Let’s start to wake up to the opportunities not to be reliant on foreign adversaries or interventions from those looking to extract resources through cyberattacks and/or other foreign governments that can abuse their privileges and rights as it relates to security and availability of fossil fuels.”
Goodbye to Internal Combustion Vehicles?
The state has also been in the process of phasing out passenger vehicles running on internal combustion engines, which will gradually stop being sold by 2035.
