Disneyland has just promised electric cars to Autopia. Gas will be gone by 2026

When Walt Disney Co. announced earlier this month that it would finally ditch the smog-spewing gasoline engines on his beloved Autopia attraction in Anaheim, the company left a few key details to the imagination.

Would the new transport vehicles be purely electric? Or would it be hybrids that still burned climate-destroying petroleum-based fuel? And how long would it take Walt Disney’s creative and technical heirs to make the long-awaited change?

After writing a story break the news Regarding the company’s plans, a coalition of electric vehicle activists has launched a campaign to pressure Disney to commit to electric vehicles – not hybrids – and to phase out gasoline. two years from now.

On Thursday, these activists won.

In a written statement, Disneyland spokeswoman Jessica Good confirmed to the Times that electrification “means fully electric — it does not mean hybrid or any other version of a gasoline combustion engine.” She added that the theme park “will no longer use the current engines for the next 30 months.”

This means that by fall 2026, Disneyland guests will no longer have to worry about breathing in lung-damaging exhaust fumes while waiting in line for Autopia – and park employees will not have to not spend hours inhaling these fumes while they make the journey.

It is not yet clear when the newly electrified Autopia will reopen.

“Reimagining an attraction takes time, so we don’t have a reopening date at this time,” Good said.

Zan Dubin, the electric vehicle advocate who is leading the lobbying campaign, was thrilled when she heard Thursday’s news. She called it a “big victory” and a powerful reminder of the effectiveness of climate activism.

“All it takes for bad things to keep happening is for good people to do nothing,” she said, paraphrasing Abraham Lincoln. “And we refuse to stand by and do nothing.”

Dubin had planned to lead a rally Sunday outside Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, to urge the company to do better on Autopia. She told me she was moving forward with the event, although she said it would now be more of a celebration.

“We’re thrilled,” she said.

The stories that Disney tells in its theme parks – and on its streaming services, cruise ships and other platforms – are much more than entertainment. They play a powerful role in how we understand our world and ourselves. That’s why the company’s decision to close Disneyland’s Splash Mountain ride, which was based on a racist film – and its growing adoption of LGBTQ+ characters in his films have become such political flashpoints. Opponents of progress know that these choices matter.

If you care about climate progress, you should care about Autopia.

When the ride opened in 1955 as the centerpiece of Walt Disney’s Tomorrowland, it helped cement in the American consciousness the idea that gas-guzzling cars — and sprawling highways — were the promise of the future. Within a year, President Eisenhower had signed the bill that would create the Interstate Highway System as we know it today.

Nearly 70 years later, cars, trucks and other modes of transportation are the nation’s largest source of heat emissions – emissions that have fueled record global temperatures for 10 consecutive monthsleading to more deadly heatwaves, fires and storms. Burning fossil fuels also produces ancient air pollution that researchers say kills millions of people every year.

Switching from gasoline engines to electric cars It alone will not solve all our environmental and public health problems.

Mining to supply lithium for electric car lithium-ion batteries can be destructive to the environment in some places. Highways have historically been built by low-income communities of color, tearing apart vibrant neighborhoods. The more we can rebuild our cities around public transit, e-bikes and green spaces – and less around cars – the happier and healthier we will be.

Beyond Autopia, Disney has an opportunity to promote this kind of future in Tomorrowland.

As I written earlier this monthDisneyland fans agree that this once-futuristic land hasn’t been particularly cutting-edge in a long time. In my opinion, clean energy and sustainability would be the perfect theme for a new and improved Tomorrowland. There is already a major mass transit element in the monorail. Add gas-free induction cookers to the main restaurant, solar panels, environmental films in the currently empty cinema room – it could be pretty awesome.

But even aside from all that, we’ll need a lot of electric vehicles quickly to get the climate crisis under control. And for Disney to start telling the story of these electric vehicles at Autopia is a big deal. The company deserves credit for doing things right.

“I’m glad they’re stepping up and doing the right thing,” said Joel Levin, executive director of Plug In America, a national electric vehicle advocacy group that is sponsoring Sunday’s rally. “It’s a great way for the public to experience electrification, to make it a learning moment, rather than the experience of standing next to a gas lawn mower, like This is currently the case.”

The Autopy original sponsor was Richfield Oil, which later merged with another company to create ARCO. From 2000 to 2012, oil giant Chevron Corp. took a turn as a backer of the iconic attraction. The current sponsor of the ride is Honda.

It’s unclear whether Honda will play a role in Autopia’s reinvention. The automaker did not respond to a request for comment, and Disney declined to comment. MotorTrend magazine, however, reported in 2016 that Honda’s sponsorship deal would last 10 years, meaning it could expire in 2026 – in line with Disney’s promised new timeline for phasing out gasoline engines.

Whether Honda or another company, there should be no shortage of enthusiastic sponsors – for an all-electric Autopia and for any other sustainable, climate-friendly innovations Disney might want to display at Tomorrowland. The future is bright.