By Jorge Casuso
September 4, 2025 -- For 23 years, zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) have been allowed to park at meters across Santa Monica for free. That will end on September 30.
Santa Monica, the only remaining California city to offer the perk for purchasing clean air vehicles, will immediately begin reaping millions of dollars in parking revenues.
The end of an era, however, has come with little fanfare. The City has posted a two-sentence update on the parking section of its website noting the expiration of a program that affects more than 6,500 car owners in the city.
On Tuesday, the City Council will take up an item to clarify that the deadline applies to all Clean Air Vehicle decals, including the purple decals that were "unintentionally omitted from the original expiration code language."
Tuesday's staff report does not address the financial impact of ending the program -- which has exempted a rapidly growing number of vehicles as the EV market boomed, especially in California.
However, previous staff reports to the Council indicate that the cash-strapped City could likely reap more than $3 million in parking revenues per year.
According to Tuesday's staff report, "the number of registered zero-emission vehicles (including fully electric and hydrogen vehicles and excluding plug-in hybrids) in the City increased from 1,003 in 2015 to 6,495 in 2023.
"This represented 1.4 percent of all registered vehicles in 2015 compared to 10 percent in 2023, and ZEVs likely account for an even higher percentage today," staff wrote.
A November 2017 staff report, which noted that Santa Monica was one of only four California cities that offered free parking for EVs, stated that the City was losing an increasing amount of money by offering the free parking.
Staff for the Office of Sustainability & Environment estimated that the City "could be forgoing approximately $558,000 in annual revenue by providing free metered parking to EV drivers.
"As EV ownership continues to increase, this loss in revenue is anticipated to grow to approximately $1.8 million by 2021," staff wrote.
"A policy change could provide a sustainable source of revenue to support additional EV infrastructure, programs and resources."
If the money was spent on making those changes, staff said, "it may be beneficial to explore alternative benefits to the metered parking privileges for EV drivers."
"While EVs provide environmental and community benefits by reducing pollution and noise," staff wrote, "it is important to recognize that EVs still contribute to congestion and traffic just like any other vehicle."
Two years later, in February 2019, staff cautioned the Council that "extending the parking payment exemption for Clean Air Vehicle decal holders would add to existing parking meter revenue declines, though precise amounts are unknown.
"The impact on parking revenues will likely be greater in future years as the market share of clean air vehicles increases," staff wrote.
"The parking payment exemption sunsets in 2025 (unless otherwise extended by the Council), at which point metered parking revenues may increase."
The City will reap more cash than initially anticipated after the Council last month hiked prices at its 5,800 meters and parking lots citywide ("City Hikes Parking Rates," August 18, 2025).
The action, which also included restructuring the rates at Downtown parking structures, is expected to generate more than $8 million a year. The staff report does not indicate if the estimate includes the expiration of the free meter program.
The local expiration coincides with the expiration of the state Clean Air Vehicle (CAV) decal program, staff noted in its report.
Administered by DMV, the decal program allows solo drivers of clean air vehicles to drive in carpool lanes "as a strategy to incentivize cleaner vehicles."
