Comment Log Display

The original ZEV mandate required 10% of all new cars sold in
California to be ZEVs.  Over the years many concessions have been
made and a precious handful of BEVs were made available to the
public such as the RAV 4 EV that I now own and drive.  I have over
60 K miles on it and drive it over 1,000 miles per month. 

Thanks to the hard work of fellow EAA members, Toyota was
persuaded to stop crushing these cars and allow them to remain in
service.  I used to have an EV1 but GM did not behave the same way
as Toyota.  Now GM is making noises about the Chevy Volt - probably
because they realize that they can't pull off the fuel cell promise
they made and will need something else electric to meet your
requirements sooner or later.

If you had merely left the regulation alone we would have
thousands of battery electric cars on the road by now instead of
just a few hundred.  Instead we have all these layers of nonsense
like PZEV and FCVs that nobody can afford to build, buy, or fill
with fuel.  

Several times each week I am asked by someone how they can get an
electric car like mine and I have to tell them that thanks to
CARB, you can't.  Nobody ever asks me how they can get a fuel cell
car.  

Please streamline the ZEV mandate and make it simple again. 
Otherwise you will reap the harvest of unintended consequences
like you have in the past.  Do you want more lawsuits from the
automakers?  Cars like mine prove that we already had the
technology needed 5 or 10 years ago.  

Battery improvements are nice but the Panasonic EV-95 was good
enough already.  Ask Chevron why we can't get those batteries
anymore.  Maybe their record profits have something to do with it.
 It is time you are accountable to the people who breathe the air
in California instead of the ones with the deep pockets and
expensive lobbyists.

All I ask is that you go back to the original 10% requirement and
let the automakers figure out how to get there.  It would not
surprise me if there were lots of Battery Electric Cars in dealer
showrooms as a result.  All of these other modifications to the
mandate have resulted in fewer ZEVs, not more.

Adios,

Jerry Pohorsky
Electric Auto Association - Silicon Valley Chapter President