The California Air Resources Board (CARB) is considering changes to the Zero Emission Vehicle Program (also commonly known as the “ZEV Mandate”) on March 27th at its Board meeting in Sacramento. If you’ve seen Who Killed the Electric Car? you have an idea of what the ZEV Mandate is and how its implementation has been challenged and impeded by traditional auto manufacturers for more than a decade.

Tesla Motors strongly disagrees with the recently proposed changes to the ZEV Mandate as reflected in the staff’s “Initial Statement of Reasons” (ISOR) dated February 8, 2008 and is lobbying against the proposed changes. President and CEO Ze’ev Drori will speak at the Board meeting this week to communicate our position directly to the board.

On March 12^th, 2008, Ze’ev sent the letter below to outline Tesla’s position directly to CARB Chairperson Mary Nichols. In addition, Tesla developed a whitepaper rebutting the faulty conclusions of the CARB ZEV Expert Panel Position on Lithium Ion Full-Performance Battery Electric Vehicles.

Dr. Rob Wilder is Manager of the WilderHill Clean Energy Index, the first Index on Wall Street for renewable energy, better energy efficiency, and zero-carbon solutions. He was previously on faculty at U.C. Santa Barbara, and University of Massachusetts; he has been a AAAS/EPA Fellow in Environmental Science & Technology, Fulbright Fellow, and National Academy of Sciences Young Investigator.