The County is making it easier.

On October 16, 2019, the County Board of Supervisors approved an Electric Vehicle (EV) Roadmap. The EV Roadmap establishes actions that the County will take to build out electric vehicle charging infrastructure in the County’s unincorporated area and encourage EV ownership among residents while helping to meet the state vehicle and charging infrastructure goals in the next decade.

Specifically, the EV Roadmap identified six ways to invest in EV technology, including:

·             Replacing more than 500 existing gas-powered County vehicles with EVs by 2027

·             Installing EV charging stations at County facilities that are accessible to the public

·             Promoting and incentivizing EV ownership among County employees

·             Encouraging and/or requiring EV charging stations in new private development

·             Developing a regional online EV expert platform for information

·             Collaborating with regional partners to encourage that they buy and use more EVs

The State of California established a goal to increase EV ownership to approximately 5 million, or 449,000 EVs in the San Diego county region by 2030. Currently, there are approximately 35,000 EVs on the road in the region.

The State’s plan also sets a goal to install nearly 200,000 publicly accessible EV charging stations in the state, or about 20,000 chargers in the region by 2030. There are currently 1,741 such stations available across the county.

The EV Roadmap builds on existing County programs, including the County’s Climate Action Plan and Green Fleet Action Plan. The Climate Action Plan, which was approved by the Board in February 2018, includes targets to reduce the County’s fleet emissions by 20% and install 2,040 publicly accessible EV chargers by 2030.

To read the Electric Vehicle Roadmap, please visit https://www.sandiegocounty.gov/content/sdc/sustainability/projects.html.