Biden Targets 50 Percent Of New Cars In The US By 2030 Will Be Electric And Hybrid Cars

JAKARTA - President Joe Biden is targeting 50 percent of all new cars sold in the United States by 2030 to be electric, plug-in hybrid, or hydrogen-powered cars. According to a senior administration official, this Policy is the goal he will set out in today's executive order.

Additionally, the Joe Biden administration will propose new fuel economy and emissions standards that will more or less erase the Trump administration's pullback from previous Obama-era rules that covered cars made until 2025.

Biden will also sign an executive order tasking the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to develop aggressive long-term rules to support its 2030 target, which includes medium and heavy duty vehicles as well. .

"When I say electric vehicles are the future, I'm not kidding," the President tweeted late Wednesday.

This planned shift away from the internal combustion engine is not as aggressive as approaches that have been proposed or implemented around the world. The European Union has proposed a de-facto ban on the sale of new gas-powered passenger vehicles by 2035, although France has pushed back against hybrid vehicles, which still run on fossil fuels.

The UK wants to stop selling new combustion engine vehicles by 2030. China wants all new cars sold by 2035 to be hybrids at least, but targets 50 percent to be plug-in hybrids, battery electric, or hydrogen-powered. .

California, once a leader in state-level environmental regulation, also wants to ban new gasoline-fueled cars by 2035.

When I say electric vehicles are the future, I'm not joking. Tune in for big news tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/riIClqPYnw

— President Biden (@POTUS) August 5, 2021

On the policy side, proposed rules from NHTSA would seek to lock in an average annual fuel economy increase of under four percent, according to Reuters, and an average final fleet width of about 52 miles per gallon for model year 2026 vehicles.

Under Obama-era rules, automakers must increase the average fuel economy of their fleets by five percent each year. It aims to achieve a fleet average of 54 miles per gallon on the 2026 model year car.

But the Trump Administration has lowered this dramatically, during the climate crisis and COVID-19 pandemic, to an average target of 40 miles per gallon.

The EPA, meanwhile, will propose rules requiring emission reductions that scale with the proposed fuel economy gains, since fuel consumption and exhaust emissions are intrinsically linked. Both rule proposals will now go through a months-long public comment process before the final rules are proposed and accepted.

The Biden administration's new proposal has already won the backing of several major automakers, who will separately announce their own goals for their current fleet. Representatives from General Motors, Ford and Stellantis (the company formed when Fiat Chrysler merged with France's PSA group) will support Biden as he announces the executive order and proposed rules, as will leaders of the United Auto Workers union.

That said, as reported by Reuters, the three Detroit automakers are only committed to the "common aspiration" of 40 to 50 percent of new car sales to be plug-ins by 2030. They also ask the government to make a big contribution. Not only on incentives for new electric vehicles, but also "incentives to expand electric vehicle manufacturing and supply chains in the United States," according to the press release.

The Biden administration has pushed to support the adoption of electric vehicles in a bipartisan infrastructure bill, although some proposed investments (such as for charging stations) have been reduced in negotiations.

GM has said it wants to be zero carbon by 2040 and stated that its target of eliminating exhaust emissions from its vehicles by 2035 is simply an "aspiration."

Ford, which has found early success with the Mustang Mach-E, has committed to going all-electric by 2030 in Europe. The automaker plans to make 40 percent of its fleet all-electric by that year globally. Stellantis previously said more than 40 percent of its North American sales by 2030 will be plug-in vehicles. Meanwhile the Detroit automaker has announced a massive investment in electric vehicles.