Gas powered cars to be banned in eight US states and five countries by 2050

The 13 international members of Zero Emissions Vehicle (ZEV) Alliance including eight U.S. states and five other countries have signed a commitment to promote cleaner motoring and slash transport emissions.  

The commitment was made against the backdrop of the United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP21) in Paris.

According to Car and Driver, the eight U.S. states including California, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, and Vermont, along with five countries including Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Norway, and Quebec  will follow California's Zero Emission Vehicle mandate, a program designed to increase the number of hybrid and electric vehicles on the road.

The ZEV Alliance members will ban gas-powered vehicles and will allow automakers to sell only zero emissions vehicles by 2050.

The U.K. even set an earlier target of 2040 to have more electric-powered vehicles on the road than those powered by gasoline. The U.K. has the largest market for ultra low emission vehicles in the Europe and the fourth largest in the world.

The country is permitting only ultra-low carbon emitting vehicles on its roads for non-commercial use and introducing a congestion-based road pricing system.

The California's Zero Emission Vehicle program aims to cut global vehicle emissions by 40 percent, drop sea levels and temperatures, temper extreme weather, and ensure people in the country to have longer, healthier, and safer lives.

The ZEV Alliance was initially announced earlier in September this year by the Netherlands and Quebec along with the U.S. state of California, according to The Motor Report.

The Europe's largest  vehicle maker, Germany, has just joined the ZEV Alliance last week. The Alliance was announced to speed up the adoption of battery electric, plug-in hybrid, and fuel cell vehicles.

According to Auto Express, experts said that accelerating the use of zero-emissions vehicles will achieve greenhouse gas emissions reductions of more than 1 billion tons per year by 2050.

The global sales of zero-emissions vehicles reached one million units this past September. The sales of such vehicles in one of the ZEV Alliance founder, the Netherlands, is sitting at just five percent of new vehicles sold.

The U.S. forecasts the sales of zero-emissions vehicles in the country will reach 400,000 by the year's end, out of 16 to 17 billion vehicles projected to be sold in that time. The sales of ZEV in California represent 16.6 percent of new vehicles sold. The U.S. market penetration for the ZEV is less than one percent.

The ZEV Alliance countries are now in the process of setting up infrastructures for hydrogen refuelling for the zero emissions vehicles.