California accounted for 40% of U.S. zero-emission vehicle sales in 2022

(Reuters) - About 19% of all cars sold in California last year were zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs), accounting for 40% of all ZEV sales in the United States and leading other U.S. states in EV adoption, data showed.

United States President Joe Biden has called for 50% of all new vehicle sales by 2030 to be EVs or plug-in hybrids (PHEV).

California Governor Gavin Newsom first announced the plan to phase out vehicles that run only on gasoline by 2035 in September 2020, and the state last year moved to require all new vehicles sold in the state by 2035 to be PHEV or fully electric.

About 346,000 ZEVs were sold in California in 2022, with Tesla Inc's Model 3 leading the sales charts, as about 95,000 of the electric vehicle was sold in the region, a database collated by California's Energy Commission showed on Friday.

Austin, Texas-based Tesla's Model Y compact SUV came a close second, with about 94,000 cars being sold in the state.

About 286,000 battery-electric vehicles with a range of 200 miles or more were sold in 2022.

(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)