The California Energy Commission is investing in the charging infrastructure and technologies that are helping to drive the transition to clean, zero-emission electric vehicles throughout the state.
Zero-emission Electric vehicles (ZEVs) play an important role in California’s efforts to reach its ambitious climate and air quality goals. The state has goals of getting 1.5 million zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) onto California roads by 2025, 5 million by 2030, and 100% of all in-state sales of zero-emission passenger cars and trucks by 2035.
The CEC is the lead state agency working to invest in the infrastructure to charge electric vehicles, which are available in plug-in hybrid electric, and battery electric configurations. Through the Clean Transportation Program, formerly known as the Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program, the California Energy Commission (CEC) invests up to $100 million annually in a broad portfolio of transportation and fuel transportation projects throughout the state. The CEC leverages public and private investments to support adoption of cleaner transportation powered by alternative and renewable fuels.
Benefits of Electric Vehicles
Electric vehicles have many advantages over vehicles powered by fossil fuels, including:
- Lower costs for fuel and vehicle maintenance
- More energy efficient
- Produce no tailpipe emissions
- Quiet to drive
The CEC has block grants for rapid deployment of light-duty PEV infrastructure. These include:
The CEC designs competitive funding solicitations that target specific market segments. Past competitive funding solicitations include, but are not limited to:
- (Closed) GFO-24-606 - California's National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program - Solicitation 2
- GFO-24-604 – Reliable, Equitable, and Accessible Charging for Multi-family Housing 3.0
- GFO-24-607 - FAST 2.0 - Fast and Available Charging for All Californians
- GFO-24-608 - Rural Electric Vehicle Charging 2.0 (REV 2.0)
Incentive program and competitive funding solicitation design is driven by analyses by CEC staff. These include:
- Assembly Bill 2127 Electric Vehicle Charging Instructure
- Senate Bill 1000 California Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Deployment Assessment
The CEC’s Counting Chargers project, which provides information for the Zero Emission Vehicle and Infrastructure Statistics EV Chargers dashboard, shows the current state of charging.
The CEC, in collaboration with the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), has begun implementing Assembly Bill 2061 (Ting, Chapter 345, Statutes of 2022) to develop reliability recordkeeping and reporting requirements. These standards will be used to direct CEC funding toward charging projects that are reliable and make charging convenient and access for the public.