Buy a car in 2035 and you won’t have to decide between gasoline, diesel or electric. You won’t have a choice.

Citing an urgent need to address climate change while cutting back on air pollution, the California Air Resources Board voted Thursday to require all new cars and light trucks sold by 2035 to be zero-emission vehicles.

Lauren Sanchez, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s climate advisor, called it “a huge day not only for California but the entire world.”

The mission, she said: “Move the state away from oil.”

The move marks a historic turn in the decades-long battle to curb motor vehicle pollution, a momentous shift for consumers, industry, the economy and the environment.

California has led the nation in auto emissions regulation since the air resources board was created in 1967 to combat the toxic yellow-brown smog that hung over Los Angeles. The state's large population meant automakers could not ignore California's mandates. Congress gave California permission to set its own rules under the Federal Air Quality Act the same year. California's emissions and fuel efficiency rules have been adopted by more than a dozen other states.

Even with that prodigious record, the zero-emission mandate "is the most important and transformative action that [the air resources board] has ever taken," said Dan Sperling, founding director of the Institute of Transportation Studies at UC Davis.

The mandate forces automakers to phase out gasoline and diesel cars, sport utility vehicles, minivans and pickup trucks in favor of cleaner versions powered by batteries or fuel cells.

If automakers fall short, they could be charged $20,000 per noncomplying car, the air resources board said. If consumers don’t go along? That could cause big problems. But state officials think they will, and the trend line lends confidence.

Electric cars are rapidly gaining popularity in California. In 2012, less than 2% of new vehicles sold were electric. That grew to 7% in 2018.

But demand has surged since, and now 16% of new cars sold in the state are plug-in vehicles — battery electric, led by Tesla; plug-in hybrid vehicles; and a smattering of cars that run on hydrogen fuel cells. There are now 1.13 million zero-emission vehicles registered in California, according to the air resources board — 43% of the nation’s total.

Once considered little more than glorified golf carts with paltry range, electric cars now can travel several hundred miles on a single charge, in models that range from small commuter cars to luxury vehicles to SUVs, pickup trucks and muscle cars.

Under the new rules, 35% of new cars must be zero emission by 2026, 68% by 2030, and 100% by 2035.

People could still buy internal combustion cars from another state. But many states, including most of its neighbors, tend to follow California’s lead on vehicle emissions policy and are considering mandates of their own.

The effects of the 2035 mandate will be far-reaching, the air resources board said. It “will essentially end vehicle emissions altogether,” CARB board Chair Liane Randolph told reporters.

Not quite. As Randolph herself noted, owners of internal combustion cars can continue to drive them after 2035. It will still be legal to buy and sell used fossil-fuel cars and light trucks.

The mandate doesn’t cover all of highway transportation, either. Heavy trucks that burn diesel fuel will have 10 extra years before they’re banned. A proposed zero-emission mandate for heavy trucks wouldn’t hit 100% until 2045.

And even the zero-emission vehicle mandate includes vehicles that are not zero-emission. Up to 20% of a carmaker's sales can be plug-in hybrids, which have both electric motors and gas engines, and still count as zero-emission vehicles, as long as the minimum battery range is 50 miles or more.

The state uses “zero-emission” as shorthand, pertaining to the cars themselves as they move along the roadways. Recharging the batteries may well emit significant greenhouse gases, depending on what’s generating the energy: coal, oil and natural gas on the dirtier side; solar, wind, hydropower and nuclear on the cleaner. Creating hydrogen from water for fuel cells requires significant electricity, so greenhouse gas emissions again depend on the source.

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