The bottleneck of clean energy
February 1, 2008: The most important day in clean tech history. It was the day the first Tesla Roadster was delivered.
Let’s rewind. In 1990, California proposed a policy called the Zero Emissions Mandate (ZEM). This policy would have forced car companies to make an electric vehicle (EV) if they wanted to continue selling cars in CA. This policy was heavily protested by Californians Against Utility Company Abuse (CAUCA), and soon afterwards, the mandate was repealed. It was later discovered that CAUCA was an organization hired and funded by the oil industry.
Fast-forward to the present. The ZEM returns to California, passes, and is soon adopted by 9 other states (making up 30% of the U.S. auto market). Additionally, these rules are set to tighten so that EVs will have to rise to 15.4% of sales by 2025, around 5x the current level, and 40% of sales by 2030.
So what changed? What happened between 1990 and today that led to such radical policy changes?
That’s a silly rhetorical question, Aoi – Tesla created a car that changed the auto industry’s conception of what’s possible.
