California Air Resources Board

Agenda

• Welcome
• Summary of October 2023 meeting
• Review Projects and Venues for Action
• Next Steps

Attendees:  Lisa Chiladakis (CARB), Natalie Reavey (CARB), Anna Wong (CARB), Crissy Hodgson (CA New Car Dealers Association), Nicole Bruns (BA-Inc.), Alison Garibay (GO-Biz), Whitney Richardson (Electrify America), Robyn Marquis (CALSTART), Gia Vacin (GO-Biz), Amanda Mattes (CalEPA), Stephen Hargett (ChargerHelp), Tabetha Willmon (CARB), Tom Knox (Valley CAN), Alexa Sanchez (Central California Asthma Coalition), Brett Zeuner (Foundation for CA Community Colleges), Michael Litwin (CARB), Tiffany Hoang (CEC), Melissa Meuser (CARB),

Welcome/Introductions: 

Today the group will go through the proposed projects and review the appropriate venues available to move each project forward and discuss next steps.

Review Projects and Venues for Action:

1. Expand ride & drives into more communities: Ride and drives are an effective way to show communities ZEVs are real, can meet their needs, and come with a lot of incentives that can make them more affordable.  Ride and drives need to be expanded into communities that haven’t had them yet.

• Venues for Action:
  • The Access Clean CA program will add more specific language and funding for ride and drives in grant agreements with partner CBOs.   
  • Possibly address through Electrify America’s Cycle 4 Investment Plan guidance.
• Discussion:
  • The Foundation for Community Colleges has been working with META in San Jose to plan a ride and drive with Access Clean CA.  They are the administrator for CC4A in the South Coast region where they handle dealer management. They are also working with Making Hope Happen in San Bernardino to do a ride and drive. 
  • There are often concerns about insurance requirements. One solution is to work with contracted dealerships for replace your ride that already have the insurance requirements in place. This group could be used to help figure out what is missing when it comes to insurance requirements. Can we use admin money from air districts to help with insurance requirements?
  • It is good to have different staff at ride and drives that can talk about all the different programs and incentives available.
  • Access Clean CA is planning to evaluate their program and see where there are gaps in outreach.  They are looking to see what partners need more help with ride and drives and how they can support them.
  • CA New Car Dealers Association offered to help talk about insurance requirements for dealers! They also offered to help get feedback from dealers as the statewide CC4A program is launched.
  • BA-Inc reports grant requirements for Our Community Carshare and CC4A in Sacramento.  They have created a mini network for CBO’s.  They also do ride and drives with SMUD and other events.
• Follow-up:
  • Reach out to Tab Willmon at Tabetha.Willmon@arb.ca.gov and Nick Nairn-Birth at Nicholas.Nairn-Birch@arb.ca.gov to be more involved in the outreach efforts of Access Clean CA

2. Create Consistent Resources and Training for Incentive Program Administrators: Develop online training and resources for incentive program administrators so they are all talking the same language, using the same messaging, and have the same level of understanding of ZEVs, ZEV infrastructure, and all the different federal, state, and local incentives available to consumers and how they can or cannot stack.

• Venues for Action:
  • Access Clean California developed and maintains an online Resource Hub that includes outreach material, training, and other resources relevant to the various equity incentives.
  • The Resource Hub is available to program administrators and outreach partners.
• Discussion:
  • The Foundation for Community Colleges is doing an LMS for the dealership training for replace your ride. Being able to have staff take these trainings and have a system in place with resources available is important.
  • Access Clean CA has iterated on the Access hub for many years. They are happy to share out the challenges that they have had when it comes to creating consistency about the programs and trainings. They have one on one and cohort trainings as well as a self-serve model that gets updated.
  • CA New Car Dealers Association has a monthly newsletter and could see putting out information about Replace Your Ride training in the newsletter.
• Follow-up:
  • Folks wanting to get involved should let us know and we can connect you with Tracy Ruiz with Access Clean CA.

3.  Consolidate Backend Data for Consumer Websites: Create consistent backend incentives data that different ZEV consumer websites and search tools can use. Used cars and used car incentives also need to be included in these websites.

• Venues for action:
  • CARB DriveClean staff are working with Center for Sustainable Energy to create an API that would allow other partner sites to use the backend incentives data.
  • CARB staff will work with Cal/EPA and other partners while developing API.
  • CARB staff will talk to Energy Commission staff to learn more about the Empower Innovation resources and how they can be included in this process.

4.  Scale Effective Outreach Strategies Tailored to Specific Communities: Automakers want to tailor outreach efforts for the different communities and need more partnerships with community-based organizations to do this. There needs to be a continuous feedback loop to make sure the information is meeting the needs of the communities and there needs to be a way to share lessons learned on an ongoing basis.

• Venues for action:
  • Efforts are underway to address outreach strategies specific to communities through partner CBOs that are funded by the Access Clean California program.  
  • Through CARB’s joint statewide Clean Cars 4 All and Financing Assistance program launching in 2024, CBO networks will be expanded, and outreach will be done primarily through local CBOs.  
  • Outreach could be part of those conversations as staff are connecting automakers with CBOs for EJ values,

5.  Educate used car dealers: More education is needed for used cars dealers as the number of used ZEVs increases and there may be specific concerns from these buyers that dealers will need to address.

• Venues for action:
  • ​​​​​​​The joint Clean Cars 4 All and Financing Assistance Program will involve dealer outreach and education on new and used ZEVs.
  • The administrator of the joint program plans to work actively with dealerships to educate them on the program, enroll them as an eligible dealership, and provide outreach and education to dealers. 
• Discussion:
  • Wholesale dealer auctions should be included in dealer outreach. Used dealerships are getting their vehicles from auction. With the volume of used ZEVs maybe there’s something that auctioneers can be part of to limit the price increases.

Future Project: Electrify America Cycle 4

• Electrify America Cycle 4 Proposed Investment Plan - 6.3.1 ZEV Equitable Access Program (ZEAP) – page 39
  • Electrify America’s investment for public education, awareness, access and marketing activities for Cycle 4 is approximately $5.7 million
  • $500K of this funding for initiatives proposed by the ZEV Equity Task Force, specifically those from the Outreach and Education Working Group due to the strong alignment between the working group's objectives and ZEAP. Electrify America will collaborate with the Outreach and Education Working Group to provide specifications for projects, which will then be incorporated into the larger RFP.

Next Steps

• Electrify America is going to the Board on January 25
• Will talk to EA staff about a good time to meet.

Return to Outreach & Education Workgroup Page
Return to ZEV Equity Task Force Page