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: Colin Murphy (lead), Julie Witcover, Jin Wook Ro, and Juan Carlos Garcia Sanchez

UC Campus(es): UC Davis

Status: In Progress

Research Team: Mark Hansen (lead), Timothy Lipman, and Yati Liu

UC Campus(es): UC Berkeley

Status: In Progress

Research Team: Gil Tal (lead), Vaishnavi Karanam, and Maha Shafeen

UC Campus(es): UC Davis

Status: In Progress

Research Team: Timothy Lipman (lead) and Arpad Horvath

UC Campus(es): UC Berkeley

Status: In Progress

Research Team: Sriram Narasimhan (lead), Tierra Bills, Ertugrul Taciroglu, and Sven Malama

UC Campus(es): UCLA

Status: In Progress

Research Team: Gregory Pierce (lead) and Rachel Connolly

UC Campus(es): UCLA

Status: In Progress

Research Team: Dana Cuff (lead), Claire Nelischer, and Jane Wu

UC Campus(es): UCLA

Status: Completed

Research Team: Brian Taylor (lead), Susan Pike, Samuel Speroni, and Fariba Siddiq

UC Campus(es): UC Davis, UCLA

Status: In Progress

Research Team: Mark Fathi Massoud (lead), Adam Millard-Ball, and Huzaifa Shahbaz

UC Campus(es): UCLAUC Santa Cruz

Status: In Progress

Research Lead: Evelyn Blumenberg

UC Campus(es): UCLA

Status: In Progress

Research Team: Scott Samuelsen (lead), Michael MacKinnon, and Shupeng Zhu

UC Campus(es): UC Irvine

Status: In Progress

Research Team: Jae Hong Kim (lead) and Nicholas Marantz

UC Campus(es): UC Irvine

Status: In Progress

Research Lead: Matthew D. Dean

UC Campus(es): UC Irvine

Status: In Progress

Research Team: Lewis Fulton (lead), Timothy Lipman, Daniel Coffee, Tri Dev Acharya, and Jasenka Rakas

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

Status: In Progress

Research Team: Julie Witcover (lead), Lew Fulton, and Colin Murphy

UC Campus(es): UC Davis

Status: In Progress

Research Team: Alan Jenn (lead), Scott Hardman, Aaron Rabinowitz, and Yanning Li

UC Campus(es): UC Davis

Status: In Progress

Research Team: Miguel Jaller (lead), Maria Catalina Valencia, and Juan Lopez

UC Campus(es): UC Davis

Status: In Progress

Research Team: Scott Hardman (lead), Maha Shafeen, and Kelly Hoogland

UC Campus(es): UC Davis

Status: In Progress

Research Team: Susan Shaheen (lead), Elliot Martin, and Mengying Ju

UC Campus(es): UC Berkeley

Status: In Progress

Research Team: Scott Moura (lead), Duncan Callaway, Marta Gonzalez, and Tugba Ozturk

UC Campus(es): UC Berkeley

Status: In Progress

Research Team: Charisma Acey (lead) and Margaretta Lin

UC Campus(es): UC Berkeley

Status: In Progress

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 Team: Colin Murphy (lead), Julie Witcover, Jin Wook Ro, Pedro Liedo Orozco, and Qian Wang

UC Campus(es): UC Davis

Status: Completed

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: Completed

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, Gil Tal, and Yanning Li

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, Lew Fulton, and Suman Kumar Mitra

UC Campus(es): UC Davis, UC Irvine

Status:

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, Theodora Konstantinou, Julia Beatriz Gutierrez Lopez, Dwight MacCurdy, Timothy Lipman, and Diya Kandhra

UC Campus(es): 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, Beth Bourne, Andrew Burke, Alan Jenn, Tri Dev Acharya, Daniel Coffee, and David Wong

UC Campus(es): UC Davis, UCLA

Status: Completed

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: Completed

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