The new Air by Lucid Motors expects to rival Tesla in the lucrative luxury automobile market. Lucid builds its cars at a recently completed facility in Casa Grande.
By Sara Edwards
Phoenix Business Journal
In a first-of-its-kind report, Arizona landed in the middle of the pack among states regarding adopting policies to enable the use of electric vehicles, according to a new report by the nonprofit American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.
The Grand Canyon State ranked No. 25 out of 50 states for creating policies that remove barriers for households and fleet owners to purchase and use electric vehicles, the report says. Policies could include offering incentives to buy EVs, adding more charging options and setting lower electric rates at preferred charging times.
Transportation is responsible for 28% of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. and many states have started implementing policies to make electric vehicles more accessible for people and businesses to use in replacement of gas vehicles, according to the report.
The report evaluated state legislatures, commissions and departments of transportation progress in implementing the use of electric vehicles along with the installing the necessary charging stations for all uses with a scorecard. The scorecard then evaluated states’ actions on a 100-point scale on six tiers: Charging infrastructure and goal setting, incentives (such as rebates or tax credits), transportation efficiency, electricity grid optimization, equity and electrification outcomes.
Arizona received 21.5 points total, with the majority of points for the state’s incentives for electric vehicles deployment. This put Arizona in the top 30 states.
“Our report finds that Arizona has taken some important steps to encourage and enable residents to use electric vehicles but should rapidly step up its efforts, which could in turn reduce air pollution, and significantly reduce fueling and maintenance costs for consumers and businesses,” Bryan Howard, state policy director at ACEEE and lead report author said in a statement.
Howard said Arizona earned points for not having annual fees for electric vehicles and providing off-peak rates for charging but missed points when it came to purchase incentives for light-duty passenger and commercial electric vehicles such as busses or delivery trucks.
Arizona also lost points for not having state or utility-administered programs that provide incentives to help people in low-income, economical distressed, or environmental justice communities purchase an EV.
Howard said legislature, executive branches and corporation commissions could use these results to implement new policies to further make electric vehicles more desirable to use.
California ranked first place, earning a total of 91 points out of 100. According to the news release, California was the only state to set deadlines for implementing electric transit buses, heavy trucks and commercial vehicles. It’s also one of the few states ranked to offer assistance to low-income drivers to replace their older cars with zero to near-zero emissions vehicles.
In the Southwest region, Colorado scored the highest after setting its goal to have 940,000 electric vehicles on its roads by 2030. The press release also said a utility plan was recently approved to install around 20,000 chargers throughout the state.
“State policymakers can make a concerted effort to enable an electric vehicle transition that not only reduces pollution, but also helps improve access to electrified transportation and quality of life for everyone,” Shruti Vaidyanathan, transportation program director at ACEEE and report author said in the press release. “The transition won’t happen soon enough nor equitably without the right policies in place.”