The Minnesota Auto Dealers Association (MADA) recently requested via a letter to Governor Tim Walz that Minnesota pauses its push called Clean Cars Minnesota to adopt the California emission regulations. The letter from the MADA President Scott Lambert requests the postponement for a variety of reasons, such as President Joe Biden’s intentions to federally strengthen emission standards, California getting set to release draft rules of its standards for 2026, and that the free market has made indications that it is attempting to all-electric over the next 20 years.
Christian Brothers Ford Salesman Tommy Helgeson said there are several reasons why California can be ahead of Minnesota in pursuing a change to electric vehicles, from the makeup of their sales to pollution levels. “California’s has 55 percent of sales as trucks and SUVs,” said Helgeson. “Minnesota sales of trucks and SUVs is 82 percent of the market. It’s going to increase the cost of vehicles. California has 24 million passenger vehicles; Minnesota has 4 million. California has 148 federal designated air pollution areas, Minnesota has zero, meaning we have really good, clean air up here. I’m sure the day will come where there will be electric vehicles becoming the standard, but you have to remember that California has 18 days a year below freezing. Minnesota, on average, has 153 days.”
David Brost of Brost Chevrolet also said that the pollution impact of Minnesota emissions is different, and the batteries could struggle to work in cold weather. “As far as the electric vehicle portion of it, I don’t think the technology is where it needs to be for the rural dealers and northern Minnesota guys to sell what is going to be required,” said Brost. “It’s more geared for the metro area. They can get by with where the electric technology is now; it just doesn’t work up here. We need the technology to be better. Temperature-wise, it gets colder than in the metro area. Once the technology gets better, I can go along with it. But where it’s at right now, it wouldn’t work.”
The imposing of California’s emission standards could also hurt dealers located near the state border according to Helgeson. “A significant portion of business for car dealers in the Twin Cities, or even here in Crookston and other towns that border other states, why would they come here and buy a vehicle that’s going to cost $1,000-2,000 more because to these standards,” said Helgeson. “A good significant portion (of sales) for Minnesota car dealers comes from out of state.”
Brost said he also believes the standards would be tough on border dealers. “My understanding is, this increases the prices for new vehicles around $1,000,” said Brost. “This affects all the residents in Minnesota. It really hurts the dealers around Minnesota’s borders because we’d primarily be losing most if not all of our North Dakota customers. People on the east side would be losing their Wisconsin customers. They aren’t going to want to come over to pay more money. That can force some smaller, even some larger places out of business.
He added he believes a federal change would be more equitable. “It’s not a fair deal because Minnesota is not a very densely emissions populated state,” said Brost. “It should really be for all states or leave it the way it is. It’s really a metro thing. It’s going to drive up prices. Everybody in Minnesota is going to pay more. We drive more pickups. We need this to stay the way it is, or it’s going to put a hurt on the smaller dealers. I definitely think if you’re going to do it for one state, you need to do it for all.”
Ford has released a 2021 Hybrid F150, and GMC has indicated they want to have a fully electric fleet of vehicles by 2035, but Helgeson said there are still questions about how it would work. “There are full-electric cars right now, and Crookston is fortunate enough to have a charging station,” said Helgeson. “How far you can go on a charge, I don’t know. I’ve heard things that they’re going to set up charging stations every so many miles. It’s above my paygrade. I’m sure somebody out there has it figured out, but it’s going to be a tough sell. Once this is imposed, we have to follow California standards.”
The current market for electric vehicles is approximately 2,000 a year in the state, according to MADA. Simultaneously, the California emission standards would require dealers to purchase more than 18,000 electric vehicles a year.
