New vehicle sales in August were the best for that month since 2017 in a market where demand continues to outstrip supply, and the appetite for electric vehicles reached a record 4.4 per cent of all new vehicles sold.

California regulators will vote to put in place a sweeping plan to restrict and ultimately ban the sale of gasoline-powered cars, state officials said, a move that the state’s governor described as the beginning of the end for the internal combustion engine.