New Jersey’s goals for all-electric new car sales are stuck in limbo.
President Donald Trump recently signed a congressional resolution stopping California’s plan to end the sale of gas-powered cars by 2035 — a rule adopted by New Jersey and other states. Now, state Attorney General Matt Platkin has joined 10 other attorneys general in suing the Trump administration, aiming to overturn the move.
Platkin announced the lawsuit on Monday, saying that “revoking state vehicle emissions standards is illegal, and it is yet another way that the Trump administration is violating the law to target states it disfavors … We will see them in court.”
The California standards have their questions in New Jersey, including from Rick DeSilva Jr., who owns three car dealerships statewide and calls the rules overly onerous.
“We want to be able to offer you whatever works for you,” he said. “We don’t want to be pigeonholed into only battery-electric, which is what the California rules would have done.”
He added about the state’s position: “We’ve got Trenton saying, ‘yep, EV’s are the way to go. We’re fully on board with what California’s doing.’ And on the other hand, they’ve added an average of $4,000-$5,000 to the to the transaction price.”
DeSilva said his dealerships earn similar margins on electric vehicles compared to gas-powered cars, and he believes electric vehicles will earn a larger market share in the future, even if the congressional resolution survives.
