Lauren Sanchez, Chair of the California Air Resources Board (CARB), described the EV deal between China and Canada as a positive step toward replacing gas-powered cars worldwide.
The declarations were made on Tuesday at a BloombergNEF summit in San Francisco, where Gavin Newsom’s climate chief also revealed that California will be rolling out additional incentives for EV purchases.
“I’m excited to see what unfolds in Canada now after you see what the prime minister announced,” Sanchez stated, referring to Mark Carney’s announcement that Canada would allow the annual import of 49,000 Chinese EVs at a reduced tariff of just 6.1%.
While “the rest of the developed world and the developing world sees the benefits of electric vehicles and, again, wants to remain competitive in a global market where it is headed,’’ the Trump Administration is “going at it alone,” she said.
After initially endorsing the China-Canada deal, US President Donald Trump threatened to impose 100% tariffs on all Canadian goods if the agreement goes forward.
Part of Trump’s auto-industry strategy is to increase US manufacturing by using trade policies and tariffs to encourage domestic assembly and limit imports.
At the same time, the Administration’s approach to clean energy incentives, including electric vehicle programs, aims to reduce pressure on automakers to invest in EVs — allowing traditional automakers to refocus on traditional internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles.
New Incentives
In 2025, California continued to lead all US states in zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) adoption, with more than 2.5 million units sold.
According to the California Energy Commission, “since the end of 2019, cumulative new ZEV sales in California alone have grown over 300%, driven by effective clean transportation policy and various ZEV incentives.”
During the fourth quarter of 2025, Californians purchased 79,066 ZEVs, representing 18.9% of new vehicle sales across the state.
The recent drop in EV sales extended to the state with the end of the $7,500 federal tax credit on electric vehicle purchases, which Sanchez catalogued as a “targeted attack” by the Trump Administration.
“That’s why we are focused on advancing that $200-million investment in incentives and making sure that we are supporting our domestic manufacturers here across the state,” Sanchez stated.
This will include a rebate program, for which details “will be publicly announced next week.”
Last October, after Governor Gavin Newsom’s earlier promise to restart the state’s ZEV rebate program after the federal credit expired, he announced that the program would not be revived due to the state’s budget deficit.
The program was suspended in 2023 after the tax credit was introduced in the Biden Administration.
About CARB
Lauren Sanchez was sworn in as CARB’s Chair in September last year.
“California doesn’t wait for the future — we lead it,” she stated in a LinkedIn post, then, adding that “time and time again we’ve proven that clean air, economic growth and innovation can go together.”
As part of California’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), CARB is the state agency tasked with protecting public health, cutting air pollution, and combating climate change in California.
CARB’s mission includes promoting the production of highly marketable low- and zero-emission cars and trucks, as well as cleaner fuels.
With the Zero-Emission Vehicle (ZEV) program, the state aims for all new cars and light trucks sold in California by 2035 to be zero-emission.
Trump on California
Last June, Donald Trump signed into law several joint resolutions in an attempt to prevent what he referred to as the “California EV mandate” — which meant removing CARB’s power to regulate emissions.
According to a statement by The White House, Trump was preventing the state from “imposing a nationwide electric vehicle mandate” and regulating national fuel economy.
The President stated that the Constitution “does not allow one State special status to create standards that limit consumer choice and impose an electric vehicle mandate upon the entire Nation.”
The following day, a coalition of 11 states filed a lawsuit challenging the legality of the President’s actions.
Under the Clean Air Act waivers, California has the authority to set standards stricter than the federal government.
“The Federal Government carried out an illegal playbook designed to evade lawful procedures that might prevent the ‘take down’ of disfavored California laws,” the lawsuit read.
