Trump shuts down CA’s EV mandate, Fresno dealership weighs in

FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) — President Donald Trump signed a bill blocking California’s electric vehicle mandate. 

On Thursday, President Trump declared California’s electric vehicle mandate would never become a reality.

The mandate would have banned gas-powered cars, also requiring that 35% of 2026 car models sold by automakers must be zero-emission. It would have gone into effect by 2035.

Chief Compliance Officer for Fresno Acura, Ellena Sweet, said Trump blocking the mandate is a relief.

“We only have one EV in our entire lineup. So while we’re we were staring at selling 35% of one model like that just doesn’t make any sense to us, nor does it to our customer base,” Sweet said.

Sweet said going all electric would have forced her customer base to go out of state.

“We would primarily be focusing on selling EVs in order to hit that mandate, whether we had demand for that or not, meaning that our customers would have to go out of state to purchase the vehicle that they need, and we wouldn’t have been able to sell those vehicles to them,” Sweet said. 

Advocates for the mandate said this is a step backward for improving air quality.

“Rescinding these standards for cleaner cars and cleaner trucks will mean more asthma from more air pollution and more premature deaths,” Bill Magavern, Policy Director Coalition for Clean Air, said.

District 8 Assemblyman David Tangipa said banning gas-powered cars is not feasible for the vast majority of Californians.

“20% of California ratepayers can’t even pay their utility rates right now. And now we’re supposed to force the entire one economy in the state of California to go on to electric vehicles without handling and addressing the issue that we need first, stable, safe, cheaper energy that Californians are begging for,” Tangipa said.