Truck Crushed At Capitol To Promote Bill Making Electric Cars More Affordable

SACRAMENTO (CBS) - A truck was crushed at the state capitol today for a photo-op fueled by a new state program.

The perfectly good truck was crunched into a mangled mess of metal, pulverized for a purpose and crushed for a cause, you could say.

The truck's owner, Jose Mendoza, was smiling as he got into his new car: a 2013 Prius hybrid plug-in vehicle.

It's all part of a new statewide program called Enhanced Fleet Modernization Program Plus Up that encourages Californians to ditch their older smog-producing vehicles. A new bill is aimed at helping drivers buy electric cars.

"Tackling climate change and dirty air requires that policies reach all of California's communities," said the bill's author, Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León.

Signed by the governor, the bill takes cap and trade revenues and puts them into clean-air programs for parts of the state with the poorest air quality.

Mendoza will be driving his Prius back to his home in Stockton. And while it's not a total freebie, he'll says it has that all figured out.

"So I did the math. Whatever we save on gas that we were spending already, that's gonna make the payment on the car," said Mendoza.

It's a car Mendoza says be a smashing success as he says goodbye to his old gas guzzler.

"It's time to change. Time to change," he says.

The program provides incentives on a sliding scale, with the lowest-income recipient who purchases the cleanest car receiving the highest incentive amounts, according to a statement on de León's website. Under the program, it is possible for a family that meets income guidelines to receive as much as $12,000 toward the purchase of an electric car.