Gov. Gavin Newsom spent Climate Week positioning California as the foil to the Trump administration’s assault on electric vehicles, but the scope of the damage was in full view Thursday as air regulators put the final nail in the coffin for the state’s electric truck sales mandates.
The California Air Resources Board — a powerful agency that sets emissions standards for vehicles, power plants and other polluters — voted to repeal its zero-emission purchasing rule for private fleets, the final remnant of the state’s aggressive push to mandate a rapid electric transition in the trucking sector.
That decision was a formality after the agency failed to secure permission to enforce its stricter-than-federal Advanced Clean Fleets rule before President Donald Trump took office.
But coming on the heels of Trump’s revocation of a companion rule that would have required truck manufacturers to increasingly build and sell more electric models, the move shows how thoroughly Republicans have upended California’s strategy.
Whether that’s a bad thing in a medium- and heavy-duty trucking space where the market for electric technologies is still developing is a surprisingly open question. Former CARB regulators, trucking groups and even charging infrastructure builders who need more EV trucks to support their business models said an approach with fewer sticks and more carrots could be healthier.
“It’s up to us to show that electrification is going to be a great thing,” said Matt LeDucq, CEO of Forum Mobility, which is constructing heavy-duty charging stations near West Coast ports. “Not something you have to do, but something that you want to do.”
Trucking groups that have clashed with state officials over the mandates say it’s time for California to double down on incentive programs that help small businesses buy electric models and build more chargers.
“Incentives are a powerful tool to encourage and advance the adoption of ZEVs for use cases where it is feasible,” said Nick Chiappe, the California Trucking Association’s director of government and regulatory affairs.
Trucking companies, school districts and transit agencies snapped up the state’s entire tranche of $200 million in incentives for electric trucks and buses the first day they were made available earlier this month, he said. “The demand for this equipment is there, with or without mandates.”
That’s easier said than done, as Newsom and California lawmakers have dealt with budget deficits in recent years which have limited investment in climate programs.
But there are signs the trucking industry is still moving in the direction of electrification — at least in the medium-duty space — even in the absence of sales mandates.
CARB released data Tuesday showing that manufacturers sold 30,026 zero-emission trucks in 2024, a 7 percent increase compared to 2023. The medium-duty sector, which includes vehicles such as large pickup trucks and the electric Amazon delivery vans that have become common around the state, accounted for nearly all of those sales. (Those numbers included nearly 10,000 Cybertrucks, the polarizing model that’s become synonymous with Tesla CEO Elon Musk.)
Newsom seized on the news to take a shot at Trump, who has pushed Republicans to unwind Biden-era incentives for vehicle electrification, including the rollback of a $7,500 federal tax credit for EV buyers that ends next week.
“We’re rapidly replacing dirty diesel big rigs and buses with cleaner alternatives,” Newsom said in a statement Tuesday. “Sorry, President Trump — the future is here no matter how hard you bend the knee to China and sell out American workers.”
The Tuesday data dump, however, paints a more complicated picture of a heavy-duty market — think big rigs — that’s still in its infancy and dominated by a small number of companies at odds with the state.
While the number of new electric big rigs ticked up slightly from 354 to 422 vehicles, sales of diesel models plummeted by around 10,000 vehicles. The market contraction crystallizes the shortage that fleets and dealers reported last year, after manufacturers limited the supply of diesel options as a way to get around rules requiring them to sell an increasing percentage of electric models.
The nation’s four-largest truck manufacturers — Daimler Truck North America, International Motors, Paccar and Volvo North America — also sued California last month to break a 2023 voluntary agreement to follow the ZEV rules even if it was legally challenged.
Truck manufacturers say they’d happily sell more electric trucks, but that demand is lacking amid high prices and a lack of charging infrastructure. However, environmentalists are calling for increased oversight of their pricing strategies, citing a report by the International Council on Clean Transportation that found U.S. truck prices increased by 27 percent between 2020 and 2025 — despite a 23 percent decline in Europe.
“Price transparency is important to recalibrate all of this,” said Craig Segall, a former CARB official who helped write the state’s truck emissions rules. “It’s not a panacea, but it’s certainly better than secret prices that give a handful of players massive market power.”
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