A driver charges up his electric vehicle at Whole Foods in Fresno. File photo

The governor has awarded a $5 million to a pair of organizations to improve consumer awareness of zero-emission vehicles.

The Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development, or GO-Biz, announced the awardees of the Zero-Emission Vehicle (ZEV) Consumer Awareness Grants Friday.

The ultimate purpose of the grant program is to increase access to ZEVs in priority communities by converting awareness into decisions to drive or ride in such vehicles.

Sacramento-based Valley Clean Air Now will receive $2.5 million to scale up community-based solutions that help low-income and minority community members learn about, purchase, and fuel zero-emission vehicles and connect to ZEV-related workforce opportunities.

According to Executive Director Tom Knox, “The GO-Biz award creates an opportunity to directly address some of the barriers to zero-emission vehicle adoption in the communities where they are most needed. Our partners have developed a slate of innovative projects, and we expect to create quantifiable progress toward making zero-emission vehicles more accessible to low-income residents of priority communities, making EV charging more convenient for residents of all types of housing, and helping to create ‘green collar’ jobs for tomorrow’s transportation innovators.”

Sacramento-based Veloz will receive $2.5 million to expand the Electric For All campaign, making key investments to raise zero-emission vehicle awareness in hard-to-reach communities through strategic partnerships and community outreach efforts that compliment targeted, multilingual media messaging.

With $5 million in available funding, more than $23 million was requested with nearly $35 million in match funding proposed by applicants. 

“The interest in this grant program demonstrates the untapped potential and rich opportunities that remain to advance ZEV consumer awareness in California,” the Governor’s Chief Economic and Business Advisor and Director of GO-Biz Dee Dee Myers said. “There is much to do to reach our 100% ZEV targets and we are proud of these projects we were able to fund to help get us there.”