Per typical, me being a left-leaning libertarian centrist, I have a more grey view on this whole thing. I think that overall it’s actually a good goal to have an electric fleet of cars, and California has long led the way in auto emission standardization. I would love to have just electric cars on the road by 2035 (and yes, I realize that’s not what he said). My issue is that ultimately consumers have to purchase the vehicles, and as of right now electric cars are mostly luxury cars at a premium. Those of us who have some money can afford it, but those of us without, really can not.
And despite @crazyguy‘s arguments above, as of right now it’s no big deal for him to grab a bite to eat in Kettleman City while his car is being charged, but that’s because >99% of the cars on the road are whizzing past him in their gas powered cars. What if EVERYBODY has to stop for 30 minutes at Kettleman City? What if you have to wait 2 hours to get a spot for a half an hour charging station?
So philosophically I’m for it, but at this moment it’s putting the cart before the horse, and it has the same flavor to me as the high speed rail project. A good idea in theory but in practice an insanely expensive impractical bust.
I think a much better way to handle this would have been to extend the tax credits for solar power, and increase the tax incentive for electric car purchases. That way people have choice and a financial incentive to drive the market.
Electric cars make sense in an urban environment. Given proper pricing and solar power incentives, I can foresee a time where the vast majority of homes and businesses have solar and can partially charge an electric car fleet. I say “partly’ because solar only works when it’s sunny. The rest of it would have to be charged by non-solar zero carbon sources which would be a combination of wind, water, tides and nuclear. But you have to build the power infrastructure first.
There already is straining on electrical grids in the summertime, and rolling blackouts during fire season are a regular thing. How are people supposed to charge their car if there is a blackout at their house for 2 days?