California air-quality watchdogs may not force automobile manufacturers to sell electric cars from 2003, the New York Times reported. The New York Times said that the California Air Resources Board has concluded that battery-powered cars are not yet practical and recommended de-emphasizing fully electric vehicles and in-stead giving more encouragement to other types of “clean” cars, such as hybrid vehicles that com-bine petrol and electric power. The new plan, if approved by the board next month, would represent the third time the require-ments for electric vehicles have been relaxed since the program began in 1990 as an effort to reduce California’s smog. Whatever California does is expected to influence New York, Massachusetts and other states, the New York Times said. Under the existing standard, 4 percent of cars offered for sale in California by major automakers starting in 2003 must have no tailpipe emissions, a standard that only battery-powered cars can meet. Another 6 percent must have extremely low emissions. Under the new proposal, only 2 percent of cars offered for sale will be required to have zero emis-sions, and some of those could be hybrids that rely mainly on batteries, according to the New York Times. Another 2 percent could be hybrid vehicles that rely heavily on petrol power. The remaining 6 percent could be various vehicles with extremely low emissions, including some that use only pet-rol engines.