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SACRAMENTO — Environmental and health groups Tuesday urged the state’s smog board to reject staff recommendations that could cut California’s electric vehicle mandate more than 75 percent. 

The American Lung Association, the Planning and Conservation League and other groups said the staff proposals went too far and clashed with the board’s decision last September to keep the mandate with some modifications. 

“It compromises the whole integrity of the program,” said Jamie Knapp, a spokeswoman for the California ZEV Alliance, a coalition of environmental and health groups. 

Steve Douglas, director of environmental affairs for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, said the staff proposals would not go far enough “to reduce and mitigate the high cost of (electric) vehicles and batteries.” 

The mandate requires that at least 10 percent of the new cars and light trucks offered for sale in California by major manufacturers emit little or no pollution, starting in 2003. 

Zero-emission vehicles – currently that means battery-powered electric vehicles – would have to make up at least 4 percent of new autos, although manufacturers could reduce that number by offering them for sale before 2003 or making cars that get more than 100 miles between charges. 

Manufacturers also could delay compliance for a year by producing two years’ worth of the vehicles by the end of 2004. 

The regulations would require production of about 22,000 electric vehicles a year.  

There are roughly 2,300 on the road now, not counting gasoline-powered cars that have been converted to run on batteries. 

Automakers contend the electric vehicles will be difficult to sell or lease because of their higher cost and relatively short range between charges.  

They have lobbied for repeal or a significant reduction in the mandate. 

Environmental and health groups say the electric vehicles now on the road are popular with their drivers and that the mandate is continuing to force improvements in range and will eventually drive down vehicle cost. 

The staff of the Air Resources Board suggested allowing manufacturers to meet a greater share of the mandate by selling vehicles that use other emission-cutting technology, including so-called hybrids that have both gasoline and electric motors. 

That change, coupled with other manufacturer incentives proposed by the staff, would reduce the number of battery-powered vehicles required to as few as 4,650 in 2003, said Knapp. 

The board is scheduled to consider the staff recommendations at a hearing on Jan. 25. 

“Petroleum fuels will never lead us to a clean air future,” Ken Smith, a spokesman for the American Lung Association, said at a news conference outside the ARB offices. “Petroleum is very similar to tobacco. We are addicted to it. We have to get off it.” 

An ARB spokesman, Jerry Martin, said the staff proposals were designed to make the mandate workable, not to respond to auto industry concerns. 

“I don’t think the staff is any more affected by automakers than they are by environmental groups,” he said. ———— 

On the Net: 

www.arb.ca.gov and www.cleancarpledge.org.