LA Will Be Top US Market for Electrical Vehicles

According to the results of a recent analysis conducted by experts at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA), the city will become the top market for electric cars in the United States by 2015.

Researchers determined that such vehicles will account for as much as 10 percent of all new car purchases carried out 4 years from now. The study was conducted by experts based at the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation (LCI).

In order to produce the new estimates, experts compiled a variety of datasets, collected from a large number of sources. The research included data from hybrid vehicle registrations and “green” initiative voting results.

Additional information were collected from US Census Figures and a YouGov poll conducted on 2,001 LA residents. The survey was supported by the LA City Council and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

The work is part of a collaborative effort that UCLA is engaged in with the Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's Office for Environment and Sustainability. “This is cutting edge and will be critical to informing Los Angeles' electric vehicle strategy going forward,” Villaraigosa says.

“Los Angeles has demonstrated itself repeatedly as a leader in this industry, and through this collaboration with UCLA, we have further strengthened LA's commitment to become the EV capital of the world,” the Mayor goes on to say.

“Given the price of gas, the instability in oil-producing regions and Los Angeles' air quality, electric vehicles are clearly a wise investment for policymakers,” adds the LA City Council President, Eric Garcetti.

“Making Los Angeles a leader in electric vehicles is not only a way to clean our air but to position ourselves at the forefront of an industry that will create high-quality manufacturing, research and technology jobs,” the official reveals.

The director of the Luskin Center J.R. DeShazo – also an associate professor of public policy at UCLA – believes that people will find it very difficult to ignore the presence of electrical vehicles in coming years. At the same time, more such cars will become available.

At this point, even if people want to buy such a vehicle, there are insufficient numbers available to satisfy the growing demand. Estimates place the number of electrical vehicles to be sold in LA in 2011 at around 2,000.