President Joe Biden announced Thursday United States automakers set the goal of having 40-50 percent of their auto sales originate from electric cars by 2030. Only 2.2 percent of new vehicle sales were fully electric vehicles through June, according to Edmunds.com estimates. That’s up from 1.4 percent at the same time last year.
The video above shows President Biden signing an executive order marking the goal, as well as discussing his commitment to producing cleaner cars and trucks.
“They are a vision of the future that is now beginning to happen,” President Biden said. “A future of the automobile industry that is electric battery, electric plug in hybrid, electric, fuel cell, electric. It’s electric and there’s no turning back.”
The United Auto Workers union, which has voiced concerns about being too hasty with a transition to electric vehicles because of the potential impact on industry jobs, did not endorse the goal. But UAW said it stands behind the president to “support his ambition not just to grow electric vehicles but also our capacity to produce them domestically with good wages and benefits.”
On Thursday, Biden said the challenges of climate change could present an opportunity for “good paying union jobs.”
This is just one of the ways the president is trying to reach his goal of cutting U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030. Biden also wants automakers to raise gas mileage and cut tailpipe pollution between now and model year 2026. “The Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation are unveiling proposals to do just that,” Biden said. “These agencies are beginning to work on the next round of standards for a broad class of vehicles, for cars, SUVs, pickup trucks, medium and heavy duty vehicles.”
The standards would reverse fuel economy and anti-pollution rollbacks implemented under President Donald Trump. At that time, the mileage increases were reduced to 1.5 percent annually through model year 2026.
The new standards would cut greenhouse gas emissions and raise fuel economy by 10% over the Trump rules in car model year 2023. They would get 5% stronger in each model year through 2026, according to an EPA statement. That’s about a 25% increase over four years.
The EPA said that by 2026, the proposed standards would be the toughest greenhouse emissions rules in U.S. history.