The Biden administration plans to ease limits on tailpipe emissions proposed last year by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), giving automakers more time before being forced to sell many more electric vehicles than gasoline cars. reported this weekend. Under the electric vehicles are expected to account for 67% of new car and light truck sales by 2032.
Rather than requiring manufacturers to immediately begin increasing their sales of electric vehicles, the changes would allow them to make that transition more gradually until the end of the 2020s, sources said. New York Times. However, after 2030, sales of electric vehicles are expected to increase significantly. Automakers have argued that the current cost of electric vehicles and lack of charging infrastructure prevent them from meeting goals as extreme as those proposed by the EPA. Last year, only 7.6% of new cars sold in the United States were electric vehicles, according to New York Times.
The overhaul is likely a move aimed in part at appeasing unions, who represent a demographic seen as a key area of support for Biden and have expressed the need for more time to unionize new electric vehicle factories, among other concerns, according to New York Times. The rules are not yet finalized, but are expected to be released in the spring.