UPDATE 2-California cuts future quotas for clean-air cars

(Adds comment from GM, background)

By Nichola Groom

SACRAMENTO, March 27 (Reuters) - California's influential Air Resources Board on Thursday cut by 70 percent the number of electric cars and other zero-emission vehicles automakers will be required to sell in coming years, in a strong signal that technology has lagged hopes in the largest U.S. auto market.

Following a marathon session that included testimony from dozens of auto executives and environmentalists, the board voted to reduce the number of pure ZEVs, or cars powered entirely by batteries or hydrogen fuel cells, to 7,500 for the three years from 2012 to 2014. The previous requirement, from 2003, called for 25,000 such vehicles during that period.

The board's final number was three times higher than the 2,500-ZEV requirement its staff had proposed.

The board also set a separate mandate for hybrid cars.

Nearly 60,000 of the so-called advanced technology partial ZEVs, including plug-in hybrids and compressed natural gas vehicles, will make up for the cutback in the pure ZEV requirement, the board said. The staff proposal had included a mandate for 75,000 such vehicles.

Advocates of clean car technologies called the move a step backward for California's push to cut car pollution, and accused the board of kowtowing to automakers.

The California decision was expected to affect a dozen other U.S. states that have followed its lead in setting policies for zero-emission vehicles.