Agenda and Meeting Notes: September 26, 2023 Outreach & Education Workgroup Meeting

Agenda:

  • Welcome/Introductions 
  • Summary of August 2023 meeting 
  • Ride & Drive results, Munni Krishna, Senior Director of Business Development, Veloz 
  • Outreach & Education through CARB’s equitable transportation programs 
    • Access Clean California, Nick Nairn-Birch, CARB 
    • Clean Vehicle Financing Assistance and Statewide Clean Cars 4 All, Ali Koohestani, CARB 
  • Open Discussion 
  • Next Steps 

Attendees:

Lisa Chiladakis (CARB), Natalie Reavey (CARB), Nick Nairn-Birch (CARB), Ali Koohestani (CARB),  Lonnie Mason (First Generation Environmental Health and Economic Develop), Kenton Stanhope (CA New Car Dealers Association), Anna Wong (CARB), Marissa Williams (CARB), Gennet Paauwe (CARB), Melissa Meuser (CARB), LaDonna Williams (All Positives Possible), Lauri Walker (Center for Sustainable Energy), Patty Breslin (San Leandro 2050), Amanda Mattes (CalEPA), Josh Boone (Veloz), Munni Krishna (Veloz), Linda White (BMW), Zach Hill (Tesla), Andrea Nguyen (Greenlining), Heather Hickerson (GO-Biz), Gia Vacin (GO-Biz), Tracy Ruiz (GRID Alternatives), Whitney Richardson (Electrify America), Briseida Ayala Rodriguez (San Leandro 2050), Chelsea Lee (Better World Group), Robyn Marquis (CALSTART), Kevin Hamilton (Central California Asthma Collaborative)

Presentation about Ride and Drives, Munni Krishna, Veloz:

  • Veloz runs an annual outreach/education campaign. This year’s campaign focuses on myth busting. More information can be found at https://www.electricforall.org/campaign/.
  • A second component of the campaign was to work with 9 community partners across the state.
  • Most people were aware of health benefits of EVs, but after the ride and drives people understood more how easily EVs work and some of the incentives tied to them.
  • One of the big takeaways from these interactions is that we need to put people in front of cars and at the same time talk about the incentive environment.

Presentations about CARB’s Programs:

Ali Koohestani, CARB - Financing Assistance and Clean Cars 4 All

  • Because of the limited funding and huge demand, there were a lot of stop and starts to get the money out. CARB has been thinking about how best to merge the local and statewide programs since they’re all targeting the same consumer base/target audience, and this would make it easier for consumers to access these incentives.
  • CARB is transitioning from a first-come/first-serve model to a needs-based model.
  • Ideally, this would allow the model to be available year-round.
  • CARB has been rethinking the outreach/education model. Rather than CARB bringing engagement to the communities, the local groups are the best to carry out the message to the communities and bring back recommendations to CARB.

Nick Nairn-Birch, CARB - Access Clean California

  • We heard years ago after the SB 350 Barriers Report that there are a lot of different programs with different amounts of money/applications/income verifications/outreach efforts. Access Clean California seeks to focus on a coordinated outreach strategy and streamlined, user-centered application process to help folks apply.
  • The most important part of ACCess is to build a trusted group of paid outreach partnerships.

Discussion:

  • CARB has been aggressively moving in the right direction in building it’s understanding and investments in community-based organizations (CBOs) for  EV outreach/education. We’ve seen an uptick in understanding of EVs and more vehicles in the communities. The problem is that other state agencies are not taking this approach of partnering with CBOs for outreach. Is there an opportunity for all of us to talk together about this? We need to advance more than CARB’s goal, but the Governor and partnership goals to move more EVs in California.
  • GO-Biz will work on harmonizing and aligning agencies when their new staff person comes on board.
  • It would be terrific if either one agency heads up the outreach strategy or there is another way to create consistency across agencies.
  • We need more specific outreach to the community groups themselves and more transparency with the Black communities throughout the Bay Area. We’re not getting the assistance we need for the outreach/education to happen.
  • CARB is working on capacity building and the continual expansion of the network of paid outreach partners through ACCess.

Follow-ups:

  • Consider having the Outreach & Education Workgroup share-out on coordinating CARB’s CBO outreach/education strategies across state agencies at the next ZEV Equity Task Force meeting.
  • CARB will share notes and Veloz ride and drive survey results.

 

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