Delaware is taking new steps to increase electric vehicle inventory at car dealerships.
Gov. John Carney announced Thursday Delaware is joining 13 other states in adopting Zero Emission Vehicle Regulation.
That means a certain percentage of vehicles a manufacturer delivers to the state for sale must be electric. The percentage would be based on average annual sales.
Carney and state environmental officials say the requirement means consumers won’t need to go out of state to buy an electric vehicle and it advances the state’s efforts to address climate change.
They point out transportation is the leading source of greenhouse gas emissions in Delaware.
Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) Secretary Shawn Garvin says Delaware stands to benefit from these policies more than most states.
"For us, we look at climate from two different lenses, one is our responsibility on mitigation what is it we need to do to lower greenhouse gasses and the other side is recognizing we’re the lowest-lying state and we’re already seeing the impacts so how do we build up resiliency and how do we adapt to what we’re seeing already," he said.
In addition, advocates say electric vehicles save drivers gas and maintenance costs. The state also continues to offer rebates of up to $2500 for electric, natural gas and propane-powered vehicles.
Garvin said the next step is to launch an educational campaign to dispel common misconceptions.
"There are people who feel like it’s going to impact the type of cars that are available or that cars people don’t want and dealers can’t sell are going to be hoist upon them," Garvin said, adding that that might have been true a decade ago, but not now.
Garvin said there would also be public hearings before the new regulation would go into effect in 2026.
