Get ready for more electrics. The White House has announced plans for President Joe Biden to sign an executive order calling for 50% of all new-vehicle sales to be for plug-in hybrid, battery-electric or hydrogen-electric by the year 2030.
While that might sound like a jump, Ford, General Motors, Stellantis, BMW, Honda, Volkswagen and Volvo have all joined in various statements pledging their support of the idea. Many of them are also in agreement with California’s goal of being 80% electric in sales by 2035, after all. Reaching 50% by 2030 makes plenty of sense, by those standards.
The statement remarks on the Unites States’ rate compared to China. Right now, The US has an electric vehicle market that is only one third compared to China’s. Biden wants to catch up and possibly surpass what China is accomplishing. To further encourage this change, Biden is calling for an investment in a national chagrin network, an electric vehicle domestic supply chain, and purchase incentives for electric vehicles.
Meanwhile, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) are both looking to implement stricter standards on emission rates for automakers. This will, in theory, reduce air pollution while further encouraging the development and sales of electric vehicles.
It’s becoming more and more clear that the automotive industry will eventually be purely-electric. While we’ve had gas-fueled cars for a very long time, it’s entering its twilight era. Due to the zero-emission nature of electric cars, people often associate the idea with climate change and the political connection therein. And while we should be concerned about the climate (Portland was over 100 degrees not that long ago), it’s more than that, we think. Electric cars can do things gas cars can’t. And as the technology becomes more affordable and more accessible, we can’t see too many reasons to choose gas over electric.
This does make us wonder: how many solar panels would you need to charge an electric car off-the-grid?