CA hits EV target ahead of schedule. It’s not the first place to do so, and won’t be the last
California has reached 1.5 million electric vehicle sales two years ahead of its planned 2025 target for the sales milestone, according to the California Energy Commission.
With EV demand soaring, California is not the first place to reach its EV sales goals early, and it won’t be the last.
The 2025 target was originally set in 2012 by then-Governor Jerry Brown. At the time, there was only one fully-electric vehicle for sale in California, the Nissan Leaf, with the Tesla Model S set to come out later that year. The Tesla Roadster had previously been for sale from 2008-2011 (though the company still had a few vehicles in inventory at the time).
At the time, the number of electric vehicles in California numbered in the thousands, nearly all of which had been sold in the preceding year, 2011. So an increase by three orders of magnitude seemed a tall order.
And yet, like many of California’s environmental targets, the state has arrived ahead of schedule.
California’s EV market share for new cars so far this year stands at 21%, the highest in the US. This represents 40% of all zero-emission vehicles sold in the US. California has historically been responsible for about half of the total US EV share. In the US as a whole, EVs made up 5.6% of sales in 2022.
As of the end of Q1 2023, California now has 1,523,966 total EV sales, with 1,051,456 of those being battery-electric and the remainder mostly PHEVs, with some fuel cell cars mixed in. In Q1, a total of 124,053 EVs were sold, so the 1.5 million sales milestone was crested early this year.
The milestone has been aided by a total of $2 billion in zero-emission vehicle incentives distributed by the state over the years. That said, this is small in comparison to the estimated $649 billion in explicit and implicit subsidies that fossil fuels get every year in the US as a whole.
California’s early achievement echoes that of Norway, which targeted an end to gas car sales in 2025, but was already basically there four years ahead of schedule. It may take some time for them to completely disappear, but as of 2022, ICE-only vehicles constituted less than 7% of total car sales in Norway.
Sales of ICE cars are so sparse in Norway that some companies have had to hastily pull their gas cars from the market, with Hyundai giving only a couple of days’ notice before ending ICE car sales nationwide.
And in China, despite a slow start, consumers are now rapidly adopting EVs. The country’s EV share has risen more steeply than in many other nations, leaving ICE-powered vehicles from foreign automakers rotting on lots, unsellable due to customer disinterest and looming emissions rules changes. Toyota’s new CEO recognized today that they have fallen behind in China.
California Governor Gavin Newsom announced a planned 2035 ban on ICE-only vehicles in 2020. The ban was finalized last year, keeping the same 2035 target, though loosening it slightly to allow some PHEVs. And nationally, last week the EPA announced new emissions rules which could result in 67% of new car sales being electric in the US by 2032. However, the EPA stopped short of adopting California’s 2035 ban and instead set its regulation as a technology-agnostic emissions target, rather than a mandate of particular technologies.
Electrek’s Take
This is going to become a pattern elsewhere in the world, where lukewarm projections of EV demand will continue to catch companies and governments with their pants down (which is why we said “why not sooner?” to CA’s 2035 target).
For many years, automakers have assured us that EV demand just wasn’t there, and they’ve been proven wrong time and time again. It is clear that EV demand is much higher than anyone expected – well, anyone except for the EV-only manufacturers, us at Electrek, and various other EV advocates, who have all been shouting from the rooftops that this would happen and that manufacturers need to be ready.
And since manufacturing takes a long time to spin up, and car development has a several-year lead time, automakers need to be ready – not just for current demand but for demand years in the future.
Every EV target that gets met years ahead of schedule represents another warning to the industry that they need to be ready to accelerate their plans, lest they cede more market share to the automakers that are already prepared for EV demand – namely, the EV-only brands.
Even the EPA’s targets, which are strong but which we at Electrek consider to be eminently reachable and perhaps could be even stronger, are an acceleration from President Biden’s targets two years ago. The EPA decided that, due to advancements in technology, legislation, and the market, 50% was too low of a target for 2030 and that the US could reach 60% by then.
This 60% target means incumbent auto manufacturers will need to increase their 2030 production targets by about a third to keep up. We estimate that there is a gap of about 2 million cars in 2030 which will need to be filled with EVs that manufacturers are currently not planning to build.
But if market demand exceeds even those EPA targets, which it may well do given this history of regions exceeding EV goals, then manufacturers may have to commit to even higher EV percentages.
In short: manufacturers who have historically ignored EVs will continue to do so at their peril. Every piece of data we see shows that EVs are coming faster than the traditional industry expects, and despite a decade of confirmations showing this, many manufacturers still aren’t ready. If they want to survive, they need to step it up.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
![Day 1 of the Electrek Formula Sun Grand Prix 2025 [Gallery]](https://i0.wp.com/electrek.co/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/07/54629423281_6315c46dff_k.jpg?resize=1200,628&quality=82&strip=all&ssl=1)
Today was the official start of racing at the Electrek Formula Sun Grand Prix 2025! There was a tremendous energy (and heat) on the ground at NCM Motorsports Park as nearly a dozen teams took to the track. Currently, as of writing, Stanford is ranked #1 in the SOV (Single-Occupant Vehicle) class with 68 registered laps. However, the fastest lap so far belongs to UC Berkeley, which clocked a 4:45 on the 3.15-mile track. That’s an average speed of just under 40 mph on nothing but solar energy. Not bad!
In the MOV (Multi-Occupant Vehicle) class, Polytechnique Montréal is narrowly ahead of Appalachian State by just 4 laps. At last year’s formula sun race, Polytechnique Montréal took first place overall in this class, and the team hopes to repeat that success. It’s still too early for prediction though, and anything can happen between now and the final day of racing on Saturday.
Congrats to the teams that made it on track today. We look forward to seeing even more out there tomorrow. In the meantime, here are some shots from today via the event’s wonderful photographer Cora Kennedy.
Stay tuned for more!
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
You’re reading Electrek— experts who break news about Tesla, electric vehicles, and green energy, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow Electrek on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our YouTube channel for the latest reviews.
The numbers are in and they are all bad for Tesla fans – the company sold just 5,000 Cybertruck models in Q4 of 2025, and built some 30% more “other” vehicles than it delivered. It just gets worse and worse, on today’s tension-building episode of Quick Charge!
We’ve also got day 1 coverage of the 2025 Electrek Formula Sun Grand Prix, reports that the Tesla Optimus program is in chaos after its chief engineer jumps ship, and a look ahead at the fresh new Hyundai IONIQ 2 set to bow early next year, thanks to some battery specs from the Kia EV2.
Source Links
Prefer listening to your podcasts? Audio-only versions of Quick Charge are now available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, TuneIn, and our RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.
New episodes of Quick Charge are recorded, usually, Monday through Thursday (and sometimes Sunday). We’ll be posting bonus audio content from time to time as well, so be sure to follow and subscribe so you don’t miss a minute of Electrek’s high-voltage daily news.
Got news? Let us know!
Drop us a line at tips@electrek.co. You can also rate us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or recommend us in Overcast to help more people discover the show.
If you’re considering going solar, it’s always a good idea to get quotes from a few installers. To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. It has hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use, and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them.
Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Tesla has launched its new Oasis Supercharger, the long-promised EV charging station of the future, with a solar farm and off-grid batteries.
Early in the deployment of the Supercharger network, Tesla promised to add solar arrays and batteries to the Supercharger stations, and CEO Elon Musk even said that most stations would be able to operate off-grid.
While Tesla did add solar and batteries to a few stations, the vast majority of them don’t have their own power system or have only minimal solar canopies.
Back in 2016, I asked Musk about this, and he said that it would now happen as Tesla had the “pieces now in place” with Supercharger V3, Powerpack V2, and SolarCity:
All of these pieces have been in place for years, and Tesla has now discontinued the Powerpack in favor of the Megapack. The Supercharger network is also transitioning to V4 stations.
Yet, solar and battery deployment haven’t accelerated much in the decade since Musk made that comment, but it is finally happening.
Last year, Tesla announced a new project called ‘Oasis’, which consists of a new model Supercharger station with a solar farm and battery storage enabling off-grid operations in Lost Hills, California.
Tesla has now unveiled the project and turned on most of the Supercharger stalls:
The project consists of 168 chargers, with half of them currently operational, making it one of the largest Supercharger stations in the world. However, that’s not even the most notable aspect of it.
The station is equipped with 11 MW of ground-mounted solar panels and canopies, spanning 30 acres of land, and 10 Tesla Megapacks with a total energy storage capacity of 39 MWh.
It can be operated off-grid, which is the case right now, according to Tesla.
With off-grid operations, Tesla was about to bring 84 stalls online just in time for the Fourth of July travel weekend. The rest of the stalls and a lounge are going to open later this year.
Electrek’s Take
This is awesome. A bit late, but awesome. This is what charging stations should be like: fully powered by renewable energy.
Unfortunately, it will be much harder to open those stations in the future due to legislation that Trump and the Republican Party have just passed, which removes incentives for solar and energy storage, adds taxes on them, and removes incentives to build batteries – all things that have helped Tesla considerably over the last few years.
The US is likely going to have a few tough years for EV adoption and renewable energy deployment.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Sports2 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike