PROVIDENCE: No, you won’t be forced to buy an electric car when the state implements tough new tailpipe pollution rules in four years.
Nor will you have to give up your gas car under the stricter emissions standards announced Wednesday by Gov. Dan McKee.
The regulations do call for the phasing out of sales of new cars and trucks that burn fossil fuels, but the change will happen gradually. By 2027, the first year they would go into effect in Rhode Island, 43 percent of new sales would need to be electric, plug-in hybrid or hydrogen models. This figure would increase to 68% by 2030 and reach 100% by 2035.
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Will you have to stop driving a gas car? And can you buy one in another state?
Any new petrol cars bought before 2035 will remain on the road as long as the owners want to keep driving them. Likewise, car dealers will still be able to sell used cars that burn fossil fuels.
And if you’re really determined to buy a new gas car in the future, you can still pick one up in another state with less stringent rules and register it in Rhode Island.
This can be difficult, though. That’s because Rhode Island isn’t alone in enacting the new rules, which were first adopted by California last year and are stricter than those proposed nationally by the Environmental Protection Agency of the USA. Six other states, including Massachusetts, New York and Vermont, have already done the same. Connecticut and New Jersey are among five more states that are catching up with California’s standards, rounding out nearly the entire Northeast.
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Finding a new gas car could also be more difficult in the future because automakers are already voluntarily transitioning their fleets to electric models. Ford aims for 40% of its production to be zero-emission vehicles by 2030, while Volkswagen has set a target of 50% by the same year and Volvo a target of 100%.
“We’re following, and pushing, the market a little bit,” said Terry Gray, director of the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management. “All the big car companies are committed to this transition. They see the writing on the wall.”
Will electric vehicles be easier to come by? And will they be less expensive?
The advantage of adhering to California’s stricter standards is that it will ensure that automakers will deliver electric models to Rhode Island, hoping to allow supply to meet growing demand. Anyone following the auto market these days knows that supply chains are backed up.
Electric cars are more expensive than comparable gas models, although some analyzes have found they are cheaper in the long run due to savings in maintenance. Manufacturers like Tesla and Ford cut their prices in recent months, and a federal tax credit is also reducing costs for consumers. A state rebate of up to $4,500 that McKee paid back with federal dollars also helps.
But even if you want a new electric model, it can still be difficult to get one.
“I can’t find any,” said Amanda Barker, policy associate at the Green Energy Consumers Alliance. “There aren’t many on the lots in Rhode Island.”
One of the impacts she and other supporters hope to see from the new rules is a boost to manufacturing and a concomitant drop in prices with economies of scale. That will have to happen if the number of electric cars in Rhode Island grows from 7,600 today to what a DEM analysis expects will be 100,000 by 2030.
Does Rhode Island have enough charging points?
But the growth of the market does not only depend on the fact that the prices of electric cars are competitive with those of traditional cars. There is also a need for enough charging stations to serve all the drivers switching to electric.
Rhode Island is already quite well positioned in terms of its charging network. The US Department of Energy recommends one Level 2 charging port (the standard charger that takes several hours to recharge a battery) for every 25 electric cars. Rhode Island has about 300 charging stations, with a total of nearly 700 Level 2 and fast-charging ports, meaning the state is well beyond that mark to meet the needs of the 7,600 electric cars there is currently on its roads.
California regulators recommend a ratio of 7 electric cars per charging port. Rhode Island, and every other state in the nation, does not meet this ratio. But the state has $23 million in federal funds to spend on additional chargers, starting with a handful of new ports along Interstate 95 and continuing to other underserved locations to be identified during a stakeholder engagement process interested parties led by the state Office of Energy Resources. In total, 400 level 2 ports and 100 fast charging ports could be installed.
For densely populated urban neighborhoods, the state is looking at creating stations in shopping centers and other central locations with large parking lots. Another possibility is to mount chargers on poles for people who park on the street, said Sara Canabarro, administrator of clean transportation programs for the state energy office.
“We have enough infrastructure to service these vehicles on the road right now,” he said. “And with the money available, I think we’ll be in a good place even five years from now.”
Where are electric vehicle charging stations in Rhode Island?
The Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources has an online map of charging stations that can be found here. This map is powered by PlugShare, which is a website that tracks charging station locations across the country. PlugShare also has an app to locate charging stations on the go.
