Carbon Neutral Transportation

The carbon neutrality pillar includes a suite of projects focused on decarbonizing California’s transportation sector. The projects are designed to support and inform existing and future efforts to shift California toward clean transportation fuels and technologies and to reduce vehicle miles traveled (VMT). The projects in the carbon neutrality pillar fall into seven topical areas including:  1) light-duty electric vehicles, 2) heavy-duty zero emission vehicles, 3) freight and logistics, 4) grid-impacts of vehicle electrification, 5) low-carbon liquid fuels, 6) hydrogen, and 7) VMT-based policies for sustainability.

Phase 1 Objectives:

  • Understanding the current electric vehicle market to support California’s transition to a 100% zero emissions vehicles and examine future scenarios to forecast grid impacts, challenges, and opportunities.  
  • Providing policy guidance to shape the decarbonization of land-based logistics chains. Answering critical policy questions about low-carbon liquid fuels via rapid, evidence-based policy analysis.
  • Examining the fundamental drivers of VMT growth to inform the next generation of VMT-based policies. 
  • Creating a system for capturing data from heavy-duty zero emission vehicles and fleets and investigating the potential impacts of policy interventions. 
  • Identifying opportunities for hydrogen in California’s transportation sector.

Phase 1 Projects:

Phase 1 includes the following research projects. These projects will either be completed or extended by summer 2023, as appropriate.







Research Team: Adam Millard-Ball (lead), Susan Handy

UC Campus(es): UC Davis, UCLA

Status: In Progress

Research Team: Jay Jayakrishnan (lead), Michael McNally, Michael Hyland

UC Campus(es): UC Irvine

Status: In Progress

Research Team: Adam Millard-Ball (lead) and Susan Handy

UC Campus(es): UC Davis, UCLA

Status: In Progress

Research Lead: Colin Murphy (lead), Julie Witcover, Jin Wook Ro, and Pedro Liedo Orozco

UC Campus(es): UC Davis

Status: In Progress

Research Team: Jean-Daniel Saphores (lead), Michael Hyland, Stephen Ritchie, Miguel Jaller, and Lu Xu

UC Campus(es): UC Davis, UC Irvine

Status: In Progress

Research Team: Mark Hansen (lead), Tim Lipman, Colin Murphy, and Jin Wook Ro

UC Campus(es): UC Berkeley, UC Davis

Status: In Progress

Research Team: Tim Lipman (lead), Scott Moura, Alan Jenn, Behdad Kiani, Jean-Daniel Saphores, and Steve Ritchie

UC Campus(es): UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Irvine

Status: In Progress

Research Team: Stephen Ritchie (lead), Behdad Kiani, Andre Tok, Tim Lipman, Miguel Jaller, and Alan Jenn

UC Campus(es): UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Irvine

Status: In Progress

Research Team: Alan Jenn (lead), Tim Lipman, Scott Moura, and Gil Tal

UC Campus(es): UC Berkeley, UC Davis

Status: In Progress

Research Team: Miguel Jaller (lead), Jean-Daniel Saphores, and Michael Hyland

UC Campus(es): UC Davis, UC Irvine

Status: In Progress

Research Team: Stephen G. Ritchie (lead), Craig Rindt, Youngeun Bae, Marshall Miller, and Lew Fulton

UC Campus(es): UC Davis, UC Irvine

Status: In Progress

Research Team: Marshall Miller (lead), Lew Fulton, Steve Ritchie, Craig Rindt, and Youngeun Bae

UC Campus(es): UC Davis, UC Irvine

Status: In Progress

Research Team: Debapriya Chakraborty (lead), Gil Tal, Adam Davis, Scott Hardman, and Tim Lipman

UC Campus(es): UC Berkeley, UC Davis

Status: In Progress

Research Team: Gil Tal (lead), Ken Kurani, Debapriya Chakraborty, Adam Davis, Scott Hardman, and Tim Lipman

UC Campus(es): UC Berkeley, UC Davis

Status: In Progress

Research Team: Lew Fulton (lead), Chris Yang, Alan Jenn, Tri Dev Acharya, Daniel Coffee, and David Wong

UC Campus(es): UC Davis, UCLA

Status: In Progress

Research Team: Timothy Lipman (lead), Arpad Horvath, Alissa Kendall, Lewis Fulton, Daniel Coffee, Stephanie Collins, and Pablo Busch

UC Campus(es): UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UCLA

Status: In Progress

Research Team: Lew Fulton (lead), Jeff Reed, Tim Lipman, Arpad Horvath, Stephanie Collins, Allissa Kendall, Pablo Busch

UC Campus(es): UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Irvine

Status: In Progress