The Future Of Electric Vehicles Is Taking Shape in Sacramento

Deep in national forest land, dozens of miles from the nearest
paved road and further still from the nearest power outlet, may
not be where you would expect to run into an electric vehicle
enthusiast. But whenever Dan Quick, global media director for
Stark Future, gets the chance, he rides his electric motorcycle
into the forests that surround California’s Capital Region.

Frequent visitors to California’s expansive public lands will be
familiar with the sound of motorcycles and ATVs — and the
disruption it can cause. Quick’s Stark Varg is virtually silent,
so much so that the high-performance electric motorcycles have
become popular with local hunters wishing to quietly access the
backcountry. The silent drivetrain, impressive torque and absence
of sparks that can start fires are just some of many reasons that
he and other Californians are choosing electric vehicles in
greater numbers despite the removal of a federal tax credit for
electric cars. “Peak gas is not a fiction,” Quick says.

Companies in the Capital Region are vying to become the
replacement for internal combustion in markets far beyond
consumer vehicles. By 2026, FlyTahoe’s electric ferry will
silently carry passengers across Lake Tahoe without pollution,
noise or fossil fuels that could damage the very lake that its
passengers have come to enjoy. PLANA, a Sacramento-based company
originally founded in South Korea, is working on hybrid vertical
takeoff and landing aircraft which will one day slash
Sacramento-to-San Francisco commute times, and trails around the
Capital Region are seeing more electric motorcycle users like
Quick.

These electric vehicle companies and enthusiasts are not just
looking for a lower gas bill, access to the HOV lane or a tax
credit. They are choosing electric vehicles because they are the
best way to get from A to B. Quick says most riders of Stark’s
Varg motocross bike are motivated not just by the ecological
benefit of their electric bikes, but by the performance benefits
they offer over internal combustion vehicles.

There might be some pullback from EV purchases in the fourth
quarter of this year, Quick says. “But some companies — Stark is
one of them — have not seen any pullback.”

‘A natural landing spot’

Electric vehicles, or EVs, have become a fixture on roads in the
Capital Region and around the state. Tesla’s EVs are the most
popular new cars in the state, according to market share data
compiled by the California New Car Dealers Association. But
there’s much more to the EV industry than cars, and much of that
industry is in Sacramento and the surrounding region. Ali
Mackani, chief strategy officer at PLANA, says the region has
lots to offer EV entrepreneurs.

“After looking at multiple cities with
the team, it became a natural landing spot,” Mackani says. Not
only is the region one where EVs are commonplace, but it also
offers a community that supports startup ventures and proximity
to centers of expertise and research at Stanford and UC Davis,
among other institutions.

Like internal combustion engine vehicles, EVs are made of
component parts. In PLANA’s CP-01 hybrid vertical take off and
landing aircraft, the propulsion system combines electric motors
with a turbo generator that runs on jet fuel to charge the
batteries, whereas Stark’s EVs and FlyTahoe’s ferry do not use
any fossil fuels at all.

Regardless of whether EVs use a hybrid or all-electric
drivetrain, at their core are motors and batteries. Sacramento
companies are competing in both markets. Volektra manufactures
motors in Sacramento, and Sparkz, whose Sacramento facility
opened in 2024, is the only company making lithium iron phosphate
cathode active material for batteries in the U.S. The Sparkz
Sacramento facility produces a battery that can store more energy
and endure more charge cycles than the common nickel and cobalt
batteries made in China, according to CEO Sanjiv Malhotra.

With tariffs making imported materials and batteries more
expensive, Malhotra is optimistic about the potential for growth
and the benefits that will bring to the region. “Our customer
traction is literally increasing exponentially,” he says. “We
will be hiring in Sacramento.” Not only is EV demand continuing
to grow, but the stationary energy storage market for data
centers and even residential homes is growing at a rate of 20
percent a year. “That’s the low-hanging fruit,” Malhotra adds.

Malhotra says he chose Sacramento for the facility due to the
local and regional governments making the move and ongoing
operations easy and affordable for his company. Alongside the low
cost of utilities, especially power, Malhotra says local
government was also a big factor in his decision to set up shop
in California’s capital. “I’ll tell you,” Malhotra says, “SMUD
(Sacramento Municipal Utilities District) has made it easy for
me. The county of Sacramento, the city of Sacramento, they made
it easy for me, and that’s the reason I’m there.”

While Sparkz may be opening more factories elsewhere, the company
is committed to Sacramento as a long-term base, and the
Sacramento region seems equally committed to supporting Sparkz
and the sustainable jobs it brings to the region.

Challenges and opportunities

Not all of the EV industry is benefitting from such a
business-friendly legislative atmosphere. In September of 2025,
the federal electric vehicle tax credit expired. The $7,500 new
vehicle credit, which has existed in some form since the Obama
administration, had been scheduled to end in 2032. However, the
One Big Beautiful Bill Act ended these credits in September of
this year, along with a $4,000 credit for used EVs and a credit
for commercial EVs. The bill will also end the tax credit for
charging stations in June of 2026.

The Inflation Reduction Act also provided significant incentives
to lease EVs, which became very popular after the act was passed
in August 2022. These incentives are now gone. This will likely
cause a dip in sales of electric cars and a rise in prices for
consumers just a month after sales of EVs hit their highest-ever
numbers in August 2025.

The Department of Justice has also sued the California Air
Resources Board to prevent it from enforcing emissions rules
which heavily favored EVs, placing the state and federal
government at loggerheads over the issue. Previously, the state
of California had suggested it might replace the EV tax credit,
but Gov. Gavin Newsom told a late September press conference that
“We can’t make up for federal vandalism of those tax credits.”
Instead, the state will focus its resources on infrastructure.

However, where many see headwinds for the EV industry, Malhotra
of Sparkz sees opportunity. Because the company uses a U.S.-based
supply chain, they are insulated from tariffs and the delays
which have plagued many markets in the last five years. “Our
supply chain is our strength,” he says. “By using U.S.-based
supply chain that’s not fragmented or challenged by any such
geopolitical tensions or choke points, we’re actually making it
very easy for our customers, and I think that is the reason that
Sparkz is growing at the pace at which we are.”

FlyTahoe, which hopes to bring electric hydrofoil ferries to Lake
Tahoe by the end of 2026, is unlikely to be impacted by the
change in tax law. The company’s CEO, Ryan Meinzer, remains
bullish about transforming how people travel around the lake and
his company. The goal of the hydrofoil ferry is to replace single
passenger vehicle traffic around Lake Tahoe.

As Meinzer found out on his frequent snowboarding vacations to
Tahoe, it can take 90 minutes to travel by road from the north
side of the lake to South Lake Tahoe. FlyTahoe’s electric ferry
would make that journey in 30 minutes. Road sediment from cars,
Meinzer says, is one of the leading causes of reduced clarity in
the lake, so by reducing vehicle traffic the ferry would also
play a role in keeping Tahoe blue.

PLANA also offers opportunities for destinations that are
difficult to reach by road. With 35,000 locations where the CP-01
could land — and the ability to use existing jet fuel
infrastructure to power the on-board turbo generator — the
company’s six-passenger, tilt-rotor aircraft can travel to
destinations over 300 miles away on schedule and without the
stress and delays that have become common at large commercial
airports.

The best tool for the job

Quick of Stark Future says he is convinced that EVs must, and
can, compete on more than just lowering the overall cost of
driving. Electric motorcycles, for example, not only offer users
and everyone else enjoying the outdoors the benefit of a silent
propulsion system, they also substantially reduce fire risk.
“There is no thermal opportunity here; there is no combustion,”
Quick says. California also regulates off-highway vehicles based
on emissions, with pre-2021 off-road motorcycles only permitted
to ride at certain times of year due to their higher emissions.
Many California riders have made the switch to zero-emission
bikes and can now ride them year-round without issue.

Despite producing much lower emissions at the tailpipe, not all
electric vehicles are entirely without negative externalities. As
PLANA President Philippe Bouissou explains, electric aircraft
draw a lot of power and current at takeoff, and this can burn
through batteries at such a high rate that they need to be
replaced every six months. PLANA uses a jet fuel generator to
power electric motors, and Bouissou says this means the CP-01’s
batteries can last five years.

FlyTahoe’s hydrofoil ferry ensures efficient use of the electric
motor and therefore less draw on batteries by “flying” above the
water. Flying on the hydrofoil is 10 times more efficient than
pushing a boat through the water, according to Meinzer. Not only
does the hydrofoil preserve batteries and therefore reduce life
cycle emissions, but it also creates next to no wake and isolates
the craft from the movement of the surface of the water. “I
personally get very seasick,” Meinzer says, “but I do not on the
hydrofoils. I was very skeptical, but I have never gotten seasick
on these.”

FlyTahoe is not yet running their electric ferries for
passengers, in part due to the Jones Act, which requires boats
that travel between ports in the U.S. to be built in the U.S. The
hydrofoil ferry supplier, Candela, is based in Sweden with a
factory near Stockholm. Meinzer is working with Candela to find a
local manufacturing solution and hopes to be compliant and
operational by late 2026.

It can be easy to look at the sleek, futuristic websites of
companies like PLANA and FlyTahoe, which are currently in the
testing and development stages, and think that Americans are
still far from accessing fully electric transit. But companies
like Stark Future and Sparkz are already here.

Quick of Stark Future made a recent trip to the California-Oregon
border with three electric bikes and this writer in tow. During a
stop at a sporting goods store to pick up some wet weather
clothing, someone approached and asked if the bikes were his.
“It’s cool to see more Stark riders out here,” the shopper said,
presumably not knowing he was speaking to the company’s global
media director. “It’s an amazing bike.”

While federal legislation might still be centering electric
vehicles as a terrain for the culture war, for many hunters,
commuters, travelers and entrepreneurs across California, they
are simply the best tool for the job.

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